A Life Worth Molding
by couldrenblock
Summary: Being the only hybrid of all three races; Ares travels around the Koprulu sector with two of his hybrid breatheren as they forge their own destiny in the universe. This is not a easy task however as they are on the hit list of all three races for one reason or another. May the Xel'naga watch over them. (Rated T for minor language and gore)
1. Prologue

Prologue

 _Science Station "Cairis"_

 _Affiliation: Confederacy_

 _Location: Unknown_

 _Armament: 50 point defense cannons, docked battle cursuier "Sanctum"_

Within the cold hallways of the _Cairis_ ; a scientist by the name of Dr. Daniel walks with the utmost haste with a datapad at hand and with beads of sweat across his forehead. This is due to him being the lead scientist of an extremely important but fragile project that could bolster mankind's strength in the universe: the combining of Protoss, Zerg, and Terran DNA. It is also his life's work when he started it 14 years ago aboard this station, in fact the station was specifically designed for this project with full support from the Confederacy after a whole lot of convincing. This was all after the discovery of the alien races called the Zerg and Protoss with the former being covered up for some time to prevent panic, but it was only a matter of time before the public would find out. The existence of the station however, remains a secret from all prying eyes.

Despite their abundant resources from the Confederacy though, the task of creating such a hybrid proved to be an extremely difficult task as they found out that Protoss and Zerg DNA do not naturally go well together. It's fortunate that they were provided with plenty of specimens of both from the Confederacy; with how they manage to obtain them he doesn't bother to question as it helps him with getting the results he needs. Said results are two hybrids, which didn't come easy, that are currently in stasis deep in the lab for further study.

There is now the challenge of integrating the human DNA into the existing hybrid gnome in a stable form. Through much trial and error they grow closer to accomplishing their goal with each subject lasting only a little longer than the previous before expiring while in the growth chamber. With each expired subject comes a huge setback however as each subject takes a while to grow to compensate for the large amount of DNA. This problem has been mitigated through the expulsion of unnecessary sections of the gnome to lessen its complexity while being stable.

The current subject, subject #23 or also known as subject "Ares", is shown to be stable and is near the end of its fetal stage unlike the previous subject which expired while still in its embryonic stages, but there's still a chance that it will expire at some point.

The thought of this probability plagues the scientist's mind as he approaches the entrance to the laboratory in which the subject, and all the prior subjects before it, are grown and stored in. Placing his ID in front of the scanner, he sighs as the door opens hoping that this subject will be successful. He is met with with a large spherical containment unit with a fetus seen floating in the center. There are numerous scientists working around it; weather it is updating their datapads or observing the monitors that display the condition of the subject and its containment unit.

"Professor Daniel." A female voice calls out from his left.

"Professor Sira, how is our subject doing today." He greeted back.

"So far his vitals are stable across the board and the DNA shows no signs of degeneration so far. If this keeps up then this could be our first successful subject in over a decade." Her voice showed a hint of joy as she spoke.

"We can't say that for sure, anything could happen between now and until its birth." He doesn't doubt his fellow scientist's claim, he had known her ever since the project started and has proven time and time again that she knows what's she's doing. It's just that when it comes to this line of work, they would be caught off guard by an unforeseen setbacks that would result in failure on multiple occasions.

"Yea, you're right. But I still have hope that this could be the one we were working towards." As if triggered by this statement a scientist called out to Sira. They immediately head towards the scientist to investigate the situation.

"What is it?"

"Look." The scientist justured to the screen with a hint of dismay.

 _'DNA structural decay: 10%'_

It was just as he feared; the DNA displayed was deteriorating little by little.

 _'DNA structural decay: 20%'_

He looked back at the fetus to see it squirming around as if trying to fight something off.

 _'DNA structural decay : 30%'_

His heartbeat became much more sporadic as he helplessly watched as the subject started to die before him.

 _'DNA structural decay : 40%'_

Sira can only watch in disappointment and sadness, fearing that this was another failed specimen.

 _'DNA structural decay : 50%'_

This subject is going to expire like the rest.

However, after a few intense moments of waiting something unexpected happened: the DNA on screen started to regenerate.

 _'DNA structural decay : 45%'_

The process was slow but seamless as the damage done to the genome was being repaired. They are astonish by this action as Daniel looks back to see the subject slowing its movement to what it was before.

"How is he doing that? No other subject had ever exhibit this sort of behaviour before." Sira was astonished by this sudden turn of events as she looked over her recorded data. "Could he be self aware of the damage or is it an instinctual action that is only exhibited at this stage of development? Whatever the case, it must be due to the zerg's regenerative aspect in the genome that made this possible. Good thing we left that in."

"Whatever it is it just saved us a lot of trouble of creating a new specimine. Continue your work here, I'll notify the labs of this development."

"I will sir." With that he exists the lab leaving his compatrate behind to manage their recovering specimen. She looks up to the fetus to see it floating in the chamber peacefully as if nothing happened. She gave a small smile as perhaps there is still hope for subject "Ares" to succeed where the others have failed.

* * *

 **a/n**

 **Hello my fellow readers and authors, welcome to my newest story so far, the start of a story of three hybrids surviving in the Starcraft II universe. Hope you all enjoy and the next chapter will be of "A Lone Faunus" which will come out when it's ready.**

 **Hope you all have a good day or night wherever you are. Now excuse me as I meet up with a certain fox boy. *Jumps through a portal***


	2. Chapter 1: Never Alone

**Another chapter for you all to enjoy! Now just sit back, relax and enjoy the read.**

* * *

Ch 1: Never Alone

 _Location: Science station "Carris"_

 _4 years later_

Within a small, fairly lit room, a black hair boy sits on the edge of his bed as he stares at the door, practicing his psionic abilities on reading the minds of the two guards outside his door with extreme difficulty. His blue eyes strain as he focuses all his concentration on their minds but only gotten incomplete fragments of their thoughts. For what seems like 10 minutes or so, he decided to let up and let his mind rest as he pinches his forehead to relieve the ache from this task. He then fidgeted with a bulky metal ring around his neck, the very thing responsible for his difficulty with his psionic prowess: the psi-inhibitor collar.

When he first received this collar two years ago he was unaware of its true purpose. The doctors said it was supposed to keep his mind from being destroyed by inhibiting his psionic abilities. However, that's when a voice in his head proved otherwise later that day by saying that it was meant to control him rather than to protect him.

This voice has identify itself as Janusar as designated to him by the scientists on the day of his creation. It says that it is a hybrid like him who is in stasis deep within the darken bowels of the station with his brother, Cronos, and seems to only have a psychic connection with him and their brother as they share the same sort of genetic material with each other. It told him to not speak of his presence however as to not gather any suspicion from the others. He has been his only company for those two years as it fed information about the station and its inhabitants such as his whole purpose of being: to be a weapon of war. Despite this revelation he held himself back as requested by Janusar and kept absolutely silent. These discussions however have been one sided as the collar restricts his ability to talk to his "brother" psionically but as of recently he can formulate only one word answers but most of the time he just listens.

He then hears a low humming sound in his head but he seems to be unfazed by it as it happens before his "brother" talks with him. The humming grows louder but abruptly stops. ' _Greetings brother..._ ' a bitter, raspy voice echos. ' _...I have learned_ _that we are nearing a planet to resupply...'_ According to Janusar, whoever was once supplying this station is no more and so they are scavenging off of what they can find on distant astral bodies now. ' _Cronos and I will break free the moment we are near the planet but I assure you, we will free you as well, all you need to do is to wait until we find you and together we can forge our own meanings in this universe._ '

' _Ok._ ' His response sounds strained but less so than his previous attempts.

' _I see you've been improving, but do not strain yourself brother, you will be liberated soon enough._ ' The raspy voice promised and left him alone in the small room once again. He lays down on the bed and stares blankly into the white ceiling, pondering the words of his "brother". After four years living in this cold metal home of his, he has a chance to leave and start anew, but there's one thing that makes him reluctant to do so.

But before he can finis his thoughts, the door opened revealing three individuals, two being marine guards and the third in the middle being a familiar brown hair scientist. This short haired scientist is Dr. Sira as he comes to know her, the only individual who ever even talk to him like a person rather than a weapon, with the little time they had to interact, and the only reason on why he is reluctant to leave.

"Alright Ares, it is time for your scheduled stress test." She said but it doesn't take any amount of psionic prowess to sense the regret emanating from her. The boy subtly winced at this news as the stress tests are usually painful and exhausting for him to go through. But recently they started to become more frequent and intense to the point where he can start feeling his mind and body ache from it.

Ares sat up from the bed, revealing that despite being only biologically four years of age, his enhance growth from the zerg DNA made him equal in height to the doctor and looking more like a young teen than a four year old. He then followed the doctor out with the guards right behind him.

* * *

Within his office, Dr. Daniel looks out his window at the unidentified green planet with a sense of relief. It has been four years since they had lost contact with the Confederacy for unknown reasons with the hope of re establishing contact with it becoming a fleeing dream. He had to assume the worst in that they are alone out here just outside the Koprulu sector. For these four years all the resources that they had to scavenge from were from any mineral asteroids and a couple of derelict ships but those weren't enough to keep the station at peak condition and so some sections had to be cannibalized just for the station to be functional. That unfortunately meant that he had to severely downgrade the labs leaving subject "Ares" as their only living specimen at the moment.

Despite that however, he had ordered the stress tests that measure his durability to become more intense because he is starting to become desperate for results. Some of his fellow scientist started to question this action due to their limited resources. But the biggest advocate of this is his partner, Sira, he even started to see her grow attach to the specimen. This was unprecedented due to her extreme dedication to the project starting out but the possibility was still there. If her attachment gets any stronger then he may have to transfer her to a position that gives her severely limited contact with Ares.

But now this planet could find to be an excellent temporary staging ground to allocate any resources to keep this station functional and to give them any hope at making it back to the Confederate worlds. The door behind him opens to reveal Draco Kartinas, captain of the docked battlecruiser _Sanctum._

"Sir, we are now in stationary orbit around the planet. Any suggestions before I head off?" He asked in a formal tone.

"We may be business partners but we've known each other long enough to be considered friends so please loosen up." He asked in a friendly tone despite being incredibly tense himself.

"That proves to be difficult when you're trying to keep the moral of your men high while doing so with your own."

"That is true; then I will tell you to be careful and not take any unnecessary risks, we're already in enough trouble as it is. Meanwhile I will monitor the situation from up here."

"I will take that into account." The captain heads back towards the door only to stop midway. "Oh and by the way..." Daniel turns his head in curiosity. "...This all have better been worth it when we get back." He then exits the office leaving the lead scientist alone once again.

"I hope so as well." He sadly said to himself.

* * *

 **a/n**

 **Here's the official start of the journey of our very young tribrid! (Cricket noises). Oh come on, I thought it was clever.**

 **Alright back to being serious, I am currently in D.C. and it is really fun.**

 **I am also about to do something I've never done before and that is responding to some comments. You will be seeing that on all the other stories starting here.**

 **Alright let's see what we've got here *takes out a piece of paper* ah just a couple of comments, good start.**

 **Adriani268: I'm humbled to know that my story interests you. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.**

 **ObeliskX : I have thought of this and I have the answer to it: these hybrids are starting out weaker than the ones seen in the canon universe and are going to be seen as failures by Narud and Amon. However, they will get stronger as the story progresses but as of now they only have the combine might to take on a siege tank.**

 **Guest: There are those who would want to use him as a tool, want to be his friend, or just want him straight up dead. It's gonna get wild in the later chapters.**

 **With all that settled I hope you all have a good day or night wherever you are readers and authors alike.**


	3. Chapter 2: Of Friend and Foe

Chapter 2: Of Friend and Foe

Within the bowels of the of the science station two scientists look over two stasis pods in a room that is only lit by one light source at the center of the room. Their task is to monitor the vitals and the functionality of the pods throughout the day, or at least what constitutes for a day in the station. This is what they have been doing for what people around said was four years and it looks like it's starting to get to one of them.

"Hey Mark, do you ever have that feeling someone watching you?" One of the scientist said.

"We're in a secluded room in a space station that is stranded in the middle of nowhere, what makes you think that Adam?" His colleague answered.

"Because I just have this aching feeling at the back of my mind that someone is watching us." He looks over to Janus' stasis chamber and the first thing that he sees are the protoss-like hybrid's frozen sky blue eyes. "Where its eyes always like that?"

"Honestly, I've worked in this room for far too long to really care, now get back to work and monitor its vitals." As ordered Adam goes back to looking over his monitor in absolute silence. He looks back to the hybrid's cell and into its piercing eyes again with a unnerving sense of paranoia. No matter where he is he always feels the glare from them as if they're tracking him across the room despite it being in stasis. He also swears that he can hear a voice every time he's around that thing, but it might just be all the stress getting to him so he tries to ignore it to some avail.

* * *

Meanwhile in the stasis cell the hybrid designated as Janusar was indeed watching the terran but in mind rather than body. Whenever he had nothing else to do he would look into the scientist known as Adam's thoughts just to past the time as he is the easiest to reach, any farther than the room and he would have to concentrate even harder just to maintain a connection. Ares is an exception however as they are naturally linked together along with Cronos but his brothers don't really have a lot of interesting things to say with the former not being able to talk back at all.

He would also look into the terran known as Mark's mind as well but there's not really a lot of fun to be had there, but with Adam he can easily frighten him or at least annoy him to a degree as he's a naturally skittish individual. This greatly amuses him but recently his methods of getting to him are starting to have less of an effect on the blonde hair human. So he just resorts to reading his memories and thoughts just to past the time now, at least his plan of escaping is coming near.

His activity was interrupted when he heard of the low hissing of the door opening across from him and enters his most hated individual: . The two scientists frose in their positions as the grey hair man walks over to just in front of his cell and looks up straight into his eyes.

He had hated the man ever since he could start thinking; trying to create weapons of war and yet he gives them sentiance? He thought of himself and his siblings as greater than just mere lab rats to be experimented upon, he could feel it in his DNA that that is the case. Add the fact that he is aware of the stress tests that he assigned for Ares, which hurts him last time he checked, only adds to his anger towards the man. In fact if he wanted to he could just break out of his cell and kill the man right there and now.

But of course, now is not the right time to do so and so he suppressed such urges once again as the doctor's green eyes stared intently at his as he looks into his mind.

' _Soon we will able continue our research and evolve mankind beyond its current limits, and you will be its vanguard.'_ He heard the doctor thought as he continued to stare into him. This continued for a few minutes until he turned around and exited the room leaving the four beings in the room once again.

Janusar continues to stare in his fixed position as he went over his plan again to mitigate his anger. His plan is when the crousior comes back from it's resource run, he and his brothers will hijack one of the remaining dropships and escape to the nearest planet with some of the resources, preferably one with indigenous for them to at least live off on. He isn't worried that they may find them since by the time they bring their system back online they'll be long gone.

With that he ends off with one final thought:' _You may be confidant and you may have created us, but you cannot control us. Not for any longer.'_

* * *

The lush forests of the planet are quiet; almost peaceful for executor Malikan as he floats in the center of an observation room observing the the green landscape below through a grand window that spans across half of the room's wall. It reminds the high templar of the peaceful days of Auir before the Zerg invasion, back when the protoss used to be at their height in power. Now their arrogance has resulted in them being refugees on the home planet of the protoss they once called heretics as far as he knows.

In fact he and his brethren were preparing to warp here during that attack but when they retreated, their teleporter was destroyed and they were stranded with limited resources. Eventually in a year, they were able to set up a stable Nexus point and expanded from there along with a Spire for them to communicate with any survivors. Now they stay here as a sort of forward post and fallback in case Sukuras was overrun now with the name Kalar, with him as its commander. Now they have updated technologies such as the phoenix and a powerful ship called a void ray. Even some dark templar decided to transfer here and they were updated on current events.

But this wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for the terrans that fought beside them to the last breath as they held back the zerg, buying enough time for them to escape with some even escaping with them. This made the executor garner more respect for the tarrens because of their actions, even if they were enemies once.

"Executor Malikan." A voice calls out derailing his train of thought.

"Greetings Preator Talac'al, what brings you here?" He asked his close friend and mentor who is the best Zealot stationed here.

"There is something you need to know." Talac'al responded.

"Then tell me."

"Our observers have detected a terran station in stationary orbit above the Kalar." This intrigued the high templar as he never expected the terrans aside from the ones here to be out this far.

"What is their armorment?"

"Only one battlecruiser that is on it's way to the surface and what looks like a barely functional space platform. "

"Do they know about our presence?"

"They don't seem to do so as they never took notice of the observers closest to them. I advise we strike them down while they are unaware."

"No. We will welcome them here, especially if they are as crippled as they appear to be. They could prove to be bountiful allies in the future."

"We shouldn't take that risk. Terrans are known to deceive to even each other for their own gains."

"Even so we should give them a chance like we did with the tarrens that reside here now. If they are to deceive us then we will take action against them. Notify the tarren Raiders commander that he has some diplomacy to do."

"Yes, executor." The zealot obeyed with slight reluctance before walking back into the hallway.

After four years of silence another potential ally arrives, this may even remedy the tension between the terrans and the trotoss even at a small scale. He just hopes that what Talac'al said isn't true.

* * *

 **Janusar is still pissed and the protoss have been added to the fold, now we're getting somewhere .**

N **ow it's comment reaction time:**

 **Consort : I do agree with your statement of yours, like a certain raider said: "Mengsk can only control you if you let him." And yes he's not on the worst of terms with the staff, in fact he's indifferent to everyone but Sira who he sees almost as a mother figure. But Janusar sees it differently.**

 **Adriani268 : Let's just say the protoss here are going to help with that.**

 **With that settled I hope you authors and readers have a great day or night wherever you are.**


	4. Chapter 3: The First Contact

**Thank you for your patience my fellow readers, I'm currently in college right now and I'm in a job with Fry's as a bagger which is a whole lot more beneficial than it sounds. I also have minor writers block but not to the point to where I don't know what to write for the next few chapters just the little details in between. This may take a lot out of my time for these stories but only at varying lengths of delay rather than a total halt so don't worry. Now onto the story my fellow fanfic readers and authors.**

* * *

Chapter 3: The First Contact

Talac'al walks down the gold plated hallway of the protoss facility as doubt rages through his thoughts. This doubt stems from executor Malikan's choice to negotiate with some terrans that have newly arrived on Makar rather than engaging them in combat. He is aware of the aid of the terrans known as Raynor's Raiders of escaping from Aiur and has grown to respect them with his numerous interactions with them. However, he had seen his fair share of terrans that deceived their way to the top and to live at the cost of their own brethren's wellbeing. The executor is too naive to see this and believes that all tarrens can be reasoned with and become his allies.

He is young for a lower class executor and even for a high templar at the age of only 291 years. He sees the potential in him of becoming a great warrior and leader but he has much to learn until then. That is why the praetor was assigned as his mentor being much older and more experience than him. In fact he is the eldest of the protoss here at the age of 543 years old and because of that he naturally leeds the forces here. It was only recently that he relinquished command to Malikan so he can be further accustomed to his position as an executor.

But he never expected these terrans to arrive when they did, but for now he has to follow his command as usual but he will also take precautions in case the new arrivals do serve with hostile intent, even at the defiance of the young protoss' order.

While in his thoughts he reaches the exit door of the facility and it automatically opens just before he reaches the space that the door once resided in. He steps onto the grassy field of the base with two other buildings on either side of him. He then catches sight of some zealots training with each other while another observes the duel. It comforts him to know that his brethren are still honing their skills even when they are so far away from the battlefield.

He would check on them and add his critique under normal circumstances but he has an objective to accomplish and so he looks to his right towards another building, a huge, dome-like structure that house the Rangers, or more like their storage and hangout for them since it's not where they actually live in, there's various other barracks for them exclusively.

He makes his way to the structure and as the door opens it reveals one large room with scattered groups consisting of marines, firebats, medics, and even a couple of young zealots that took an interest in them when they arrived. They seem to be well integrated into their social structure with how used the terrans are with them being around. He appreciates the accepting nature of these terrans, but unlike Malikan he doesn't believe that all tarrens are like this especially with the history the two races share.

The zealot scans the room in search for a particular terran, looking past the various supplies and vehicles such as goliaths, siege tanks, vultures, and a couple of dropships. It took him a minute or so but eventually he finds who he was looking for: General Marcow of Raynor's Raiders. He's talking with a couple of marines and a medic in his own gray and blue power armour. Talac'al approaches the group quickly garnering their attention with all but the general having a slightly concerned face upon seeing him.

"Hey Talac'al, what brings you here?" Marcow asked. The praetor internally scoffed at the brown hair terran's response as he's always so informal around him to the point of being irritating.

"Executor Malikan needs your services, I will explain on our way there."

"Alright then, sorry guys but duty calls." He says farewell to his fellow soldiers and goes along with the protoss out of the building.

* * *

The pair make their way through the corridors of the main facility as the praetor explains the situation at hand.

"Malikan thinks that if a tarren were to talk with them beside him then they would be less hostile towards us. That's where you come in." Talac'al explained.

"So you want me to sweet talk to them for you then?" Marcow responds.

"Essentially." He deadpans. The zealot can never understand how the executor can get along with his sort of character.

"It's been a while since I came in contact with anybody else besides everyone here. But I have one question..." In an instant his tone had turned an one eighty catching Talac'al off guard as the terran's green eyes took a much more serious expression. "...Do these humans happen to be Confederate?"

The protoss had to recompile himself a little bit before answering "I do think so, their insignia matches what I've seen on the battlefield in the past."

"Well, this might a little difficult, the Confederacy is known to be stubborn and is frankly a giant asshole in my opinion."

"That might not be the case as with their current condition."

"Maybe, we'll just have to see about that." It was then they come across another door leading towards the building's equivalent of a command center which opens to reveal Malikan standing, or rather floating, there as if waiting for the pair.

"Greetings friend Marcow, I do believe you had a pleasant day today." Malikan greets.

"As pleasant as it can get around here executor." The terran responded in his usual light hearted personality in an instant. Talac'al still can't understand how this terran works at all sometimes.

"Did he fill you in on your task?"

"Yes he did."

"Then you are ready for it then?"

"I'm even dressed for the occasion."

"Then let's go on our way then." The executor takes the lead as the trio make their way back down the hallway towards the hanger.

* * *

Upon the green surface of the unknown planet the lone battlecruiser _Sanctum_ sits within a clearing of a forest with beams of sunlight hitting its partly ruined surface. With it are two highly strewn out lines of around eleven SCVs collecting minerals from a large natural mineral patch. Along the trail are around ten marines dotted across path standing guard for any sort of threat.

Up within the bridge of the ship captain Draco looks over the mining operation in silence outside the noise created by the crew members. He did so for about a half an hour or so and so far readings have indicated that they have collected approximately 10,432 units of minerals from the area. It isn't enough to repair everything, especially without any vespene gas, but it's a good start with getting the hulls of both space vessels patched up.

The thing is that this has all gone smoothly as of now with next to no activity in the area at all beside their own. At this rate they may actually set up a permanent base here and build from there. After all, they don't even know if the Confederacy still exists at all.

"Captain!" A crew member calls out.

"What is it?" Draco replied.

"We're getting hailed by someone, it's protoss sir!" This surprised the captain, but his surprise soon turns to dread as the realization sets in. He needs to do something and fast.

"Bring them up." A green monitor then appears in front of him in a brief moment of silence before yet another unexpected sight appears: a image of a tarren marine in dark blue armour.

"Hey there, name's Marcow of Raynor's Raiders. We've taken notice of your ship and me and a friend of mine are on our way." Marcow's statement was followed by an image of a protoss appearing, pushing the other image to the side.

"Greetings, I am executor Malikan, commander of the protoss here on Makar. We come to you baring no aggression towards you, in fact we would like to talk to you." The protoss now known as Malikan said. This has the captain confused for many reasons. One such is that the protoss are aligned with tarrens now, he never imagined them even considering allying with the likes of humans hearing of how prideful they are, especially from the subjects back when the station was still completely operational.

But considering their current dilemma the captain decided to keep himself compose and went along with them. "This is caption Draco Kartinas of the _Sanctum_. This is quite unexpected, we didn't expect to find anyone out this far."

"Perhaps so from the look of your damaged equipment our observers caught. But again do not threat as we harbor no aggression towards you."

"If what you say is the truth then where do you want to meet?"

"Right outside your ship if that is fine with you." Draco gave it some thought, considering every risk involved in this action. He would rule in deception if it wasn't for a fact that protoss are often a straightforward race from the reports he received while he was away. After a while longer he comes to a conclusion.

"I'll take you up on your offer."

"Then I will meet you in a few minutes then, tarren." The screen shrinks back into the console leaving the disgruntled captain with his crew in a deafening silence. Draco looks around to see all the worried faces of each person staring back at him, praying for an answer to this recent development.

He knows this and so he addresses his subordinates "As we all have just witnessed we are no longer alone, and in the presence of the Protoss nonetheless. But this will not change our course of action, resume your duties everyone, I will handle the diplomacy." He then walks out of the bridge and as soon as the door closes behind him he took a moment to pinch his brow in frustration and fear.

Now they have been noticed by the most advanced race in the Kaproulu sector while in a state that can't even hold off a small zerg invasion. He will need to be careful if he wants any hope of gaining any more time to gather resources here and making it out alive. He's at least a little grateful that they were given this opportunity in the first place.

* * *

 **This is quite the predicament captain Draco is in isn't it? Well let's just see how this'll go.**

 **Now time to respond to you magnificent readers:**

 _ **Adriani268**_ **: Why thank you man :)**

 **For the stasis cells scene I just thought that it would be cool to give my impression on how it's like in one from the hybrid's point of view.**

 _ **Consort : **_**That's my bad, I accidently called the previous chapter** _ **chapter 3**_ **since I forgot to change the** _ **chapter 1**_ **name to** _ **prologue**_ **since that's what it was supposed to be starting the chain. I didn't pay attention to how the website labeled the chapter _chapter 3_. What you saw was the correction I made immediately after discovering this mistake. So whoops :P. **

**For Ares, he isn't a capable combatant at this point in his life. But Janusar and Chronos are capable of fending for themselves with the former being the brains while the latter being the brawn. Also this is during the Wings of Liberty as of now.**

 **As for how they will escape exactly I will leave that to your imagination. (And yes, three units (Chronos included) alone on a protoss planet are not going to have a pleasant time.)**

 **With that out of the way I hope that all of you readers and authors have a great day or night wherever you are.**


	5. Chapter 4: Heavy Diplomacy

Chapter 4: Heavy Diplomacy

Captain Draco walks down the dimly lit halls of the _Sanctum_ as his worries slowly drain him like a leech. It was then he reaches a door which opens to a lift. He enters it and moves to the console that is just ahead of him and activates the lift causing it to descend.

Just as the problem with resources was solved and what looks like a bright future for everyone on the station, a whole nother problem arises when they just happened to run into the protoss.

He did see that there was a fellow terran among them from the message earlier but it could be a trick to have them let their guard down. But there is a problem with that theory, for one the protoss look down on using such underhanded tactics and would rather face their enemy head on. Also why would they want to trick them to begin with, they can easily crush them like with the very few battles he engaged them in. The only reason he lives to confirm this is that he had gotten really lucky in retreating with the forces he had left which got him assigned to this duty to guard the station to begin with. Even so he still has to tread lightly so that they are not obilierated on the spot by them, even if it means swallowing his pride as a caption.

Thoughts such as these continue to linger in his mind as the lift slows its decent until it comes to a complete stop in front of another door. It opens to reveal the main hangar except with only the natural light of the planet being the only source of illumination in the vast room. It was mostly empty except with some scattered vehicles such as siege tanks and goliaths and a dropship here and there which have not been active ever since their isolation in order to conserve resources with many being scrapped for spare parts. In fact the only thing active in this hanger are the SCVs with one just coming back with a chunk of minerals in its hand and dropping it into an makeshift mineral compartment in the far corner.

He remembers how this hangar used to be the central hub of activity with crewman constantly repairing and refurbishing many more vehicles as he walks down the near silent room, only adding to his anxiety. He calls over to two marines that were guarding the hangar entrance who have taken his side as his escorts. It isn't much, but he has to keep appearances nonetheless. The group turns to the right of the cruiser towards an area of grass not overshadowed by the ship and waited.

After a few minutes a protoss vessel comes into view but it's unlike anything he had seen before. The ship only comprised of a central mass flanked by two large fins and has no visible weapon systems. It stopes ahead of them and oriented itself upward and folded it wings open like a flower. It was then five pillars of light appear under it disrupting the grass around them and within a few seconds they fade. What is revealed are a high templar, a marines in blue and black armour, and three zealots on either side of the two.

"Greetings captain Draco, it is an honor to meet you." The being known as Malikan starts off.

"The honor's all mine executor." Draco replies, giving off his best impression of confidence.

"Hello captain, great to see fellow terrans out here."

"Likewise General Marcow." As of now he still doesn't remember of hearing about Raynor's Raiders, it's most likely a small mercenary group that he hasn't heard about.

"You are wondering how we coexist with these terrans are you not?"

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't."

"Well you are at least aware of the zerg?"

"Only in reports." He isn't lying entirely, he only fought against the protoss and but have only encountered the zerg in cages and stasis on the station.

"Good, then let us begin. Around four years ago our homeworld was invaded by the zerg, overrunning us and taking over the planet. But before they did Marcow's forces have aided mine in escaping and as you see, have came with us before the gateway here closed behind us."

"Yeah, it was a close one back then. A zergling nearly bit my arm during the fight." The terran general intervened.

"Indeed. Now that we have explained our purpose here, we would like to know yours." The captain tenses up at the mere mention of this dreaded question despite having expected it from the beginning. There are not enough times that he can reminds himself on how critical it is for him to keep his composure as he also nearly lost it. It's fortunate that he came up with a cover story before this meeting.

"We were an expeditionary fleet that were sent out to search for any more habitable planets for the Confederacy. However, around four years ago we lost contact with the them and so we were essentially stranded. We roamed the outskirts scavenging off of what we can find, not returning because we feared that the Confederacy has fallen to either the protoss or the zerg. That was the case until we came across this planet, unaware of your presence because our sensors were greatly reduced due to a lack of resources. We also didn't expect anyone to be out this far besides us." After concluding the story Draco starts holding his breath as Malikan's eyes starts turning inquisitive. The seconds press on as the high templar studies the captain and his claim to the point of it becoming deafening for the captain despite that such little time has actually passed.

It felt like an eternity before Malikan broke the silence "In that case then we welcome you Makar, take all the time you need to recover. And you are welcomed to stay here for as long as you like. However, I would like for you to come visit our nexus point to have a tour there, as we have visited your ship."

"By no offense executor, but considering our current condition I'm afraid I can't leave my men behind."

"I understand, but I will send some of Marcow's forces along with mine to watch over your operation, for security reasons."

"I appreciate that executor." On the inside though he's frustrated that now he will be constantly watched over by the protoss.

"The bid you farewell for now, may your recovery bring you a swift recovery."

"Farewell executor." The ambassadors then begin to be warped back into the vessel but when the Draco looked at the other he sees one zealot in particular glaring at him with piercing orange eyes. It caused him to slip in his compusor ever so slightly due to how striking the glare is above all the other zealots. Those eyes were the last thing he saw before the group was fully warped into to vessel. It turns back to where it came from and flew away, leaving a disgruntled captain once again.

He lets out a deep sigh when the vessel was completely out of view, relieved that it all went down as well as it did. However, it only delays the inevitable but hopefully long enough to get them enough resources to escape this planet. But now he has to warn Daniel about this encounter and quickly.

* * *

 **30 minutes later**

Malikan once again looks over the lush forest of the planet below but not in peace anymore, his mind is still pondering on the conversation he just had with the terran known as Draco. His mental fortitude was strong for a terran but right before he was warped back into the warp prism, he felt something off with him though only briefly. Even so he sensed just enough in his mind to install a hint of doubt in the young lesser executor's psyche.

Even if he doesn't know it, he is starting to worry that Talac'al may have been right all along.

But then he starts to feel something in the Khala, the familiar essence of Talac'al and his doubt for the terrans. He's senses him talking to some dark templar about them but with only fragments of his words being heard. What is so important that he is trying to hide from the rest of the protoss, or more likely specifically him? He must get to the bottom of this.

* * *

 **For now Captain Draco, his crew, and the three hybrids have been bought some time, however not all protoss are as naïve as Malikan.**

 **Happy late Halloween everyone, I wanted to post this yesterday but was just too late to do so as I was getting really tired at the time.**

 **Now getting serious, for those who are familiar with my other stories they are going to be on a hiatus for the time being. It's just that the ideas for them are feeling forced out everytime I try to think about them, like be trying to push a giant bolder and as an author I should never do that with a story since it isn't gonna resonate with me and therefore not resonate well with the reader either. It's with this story the ideas are flowing much smoother and clearer and so this will get my undivided attention between the three stories. This doesn't mean that I'm giving up on the other two, it's just that I'll come back to them at some point but for now they're just on the shelf.**

 **With that news out of the way let's get to the comment reaction:**

 **First off thanks towards Consort and Adriani268 who pointed out all the spelling errors in the last chapter which I corrected the moment after I read their reviews.**

 _ **Consort:**_ **This time Draco was lucky but luck can only carry one so far.**

 _ **Adriani268 : **_**Again thanks for the spelling feedback. And don't worry about the whole protoss age thing. I had to look at the wiki as well in order to set the ideal age for Malikan and Talac'al when planning them out. The average lifespan of a protoss is around 1000 years from what I found with exceptions like Raszagal.**

 **With that all said and done I hope you all have a great day or night wherever you may reside.**


	6. Chapter 5: Inquisitive Espionage

**Hey everyone This is couldrenblock coming in from a planet in the Starcraft universe and currently hiding from the Tal'darim and hoping that you all had a great Thanksgiving and also thanking you for your patience. If you are wondering why I'm hiding well it's because I have supposedly stolen a crystal that they hold sacred or whatever and they are not particularly happy about it.**

 **I've also temporality lost the ability to travel between dimensions due to someone named Alarak causing significant damage to my teleportation systems. But I was able to complete this chapter in the meantime so I hope this makes your day better than mine. Now I need to get back to repairing myself.**

* * *

Chapter 5: Inquisitive Espionage

To say that Malikan was angry would put it lightly, he is ferious to discovered that his very mentor Talac'al is conspiring behind his back. He had sense the old protoss trying to disrupt his presence in the Khala. Though the protoss are capable of this it's a practice that is heavily frowned upon and is nearly forgotten by all except for a few older individuals. Now isn't an exception but it isn't this that incited the young protoss' anger, it was that Talac'al had never even considered consulting him about this plan. Does he really consider him naive enough to not even be worth talking to in the matter?

He continues down the gold plated hall until he reaches the door leading to a hanger bay that holds some of the aircraft assigned to this base including a void ray currently in maintenance. He would admire the hybrid of Nerazim and Khalai engineering but he has more pressing matters to attend to.

He scans the hanger for any signs of the old praetor only to spot him walking down on a lower catwalk . Malikan approaches a nearby lift to his left and activates it, bringing him down to the same level as him. After the lift ends its trip Malikan starts to make his way towards the praetor with a glare that rivals that of a zealot and with anger that would be further expressed with loud footsteps if he were to walk. At the sight of this the senior protoss halted and stood his ground, knowing what is about to come.

The young protoss reaches him staring eye to eye with his mentor before breaking the silence.

"Explain yourself, now." Malikan said while holding his anger back with some success.

"You already know." Talac'al responded.

"Even so I want to hear it from you in person. I only know what I was able to recover." His words start to show his ever dwindling control over his emotions.

"I ordered some dark templar who share my concern to search both the terran's ship and their station in orbit to find what they are hiding. We both know that they are. You sensed the captain's fear and treachery before we left, didn't you?" Malikan curls his hand into a fist as his frustration reaches a all time high due to this statement. He isn't the type to deceive others like this, he heard of the stories of the Queen of Blades and he already despises her for being so deceitful acts to everyone despite never meeting her. Knowing his thoughts, Talac'al continued "Remember that the Queen of Blades was once a terran and thinks like one as well. Her kind of treachery can be seen in the majority of the terran race, taking advantage of the compassion of others for their own gain and these ones are no different. I hope you understand that Malikan." The praetor starts walking away from the young executor before the latter adding one more note.

"I'll let this go just this once, we'll see what your agents find. And also, speak with me about such activities before you go out and do them, I am an executor and you are a praetor, and we promised that we shall treat each other as such."

"You may be an executor but you are still young and have much to learn." He retorts and continues to walk away leaving a slightly baffled Malikan alone in the hanger with his emotions.

* * *

Within the forest of Makar two dark templar transverse the treetops with little effort as they jump from tree to tree causing little disturbance to the environment around them. They are Towa and Karo, two of three brothers with the former being older of the two but younger than their oldest brother, Calitarn, and some of the few of the dark templar that decided to move to this planet away from Shakuras to explore the new planet. It took them some time to adjust to the natural light since they were used to the always darken skies of their homeworld but eventually they call this planet a home away from home with them knowing the surrounding forest right down to the last tree.

Towa dawns a hydralisk skull as his helmet and wears a slightly modified version of the armour that his Zer'atai brethren. Karo on the other hand only has the body carapace of a zergling lining his upper arm and has a lighter skin tone to his brother's and wears a much less oriental armour than his sibling looking more like that of the Lenassa.

They continue their strides across the trees until they reach the edge of a giant clearing, in its distant edge is the terran cruiser that they were assigned to infiltrate. The continued into a full sprint towards the ship barely disrupting the grass as they quickly close the distance between them. They pass the marines guarding the hanger with only a breeze that they barely noticed.

They scaled the length of the hanger in seconds and reached the lift. Towa activates the lift springing it to life with a groan. Karo looks back to see if the terrens noticed the disturbance and surprisingly they didn't and soon they ascend into the bowels of the ship.

When they reached the top they are met with a dimly lit and barren hallway, but the pair still walk cautiously as they start making their way forward. Karo inspects the hallway seeing that it is poorly maintained with bloch marks spotting the walls and the floor they walk upon. It seems that the terrans are truly in a dire situation if they can't even maintain the sanitary condition of their own ship. It was then they come across a break in the hall with a passageway leading to the right of them and they stop in front of the break.

"Karo, continue down this path, I shall take this one. And remember, do not strike anyone down." Towa orders with a slightly deep voice.

"I will." Karo replied with a voice slightly higher than his brother's and continues to go down the corridor while his older sibling goes down the newly discovered path.

As the youngest sibling makes his way down the dark hall he continues to take quick glances at its walls seeing no change in its condition. It was then he hears the stomping of a marine so he quickly moves against a wall and stands deathly still while the marine walks without a hitch. He starts mumbling however and so karo listens in.

"Man with all the crap going on right now I really need a smoke, that sandpaper cigarette is really starting to look enticing now." The marine mumbles as he lazily walks down the hallway completely unaware of the pair of green eyes watching over him.

The dark templar stared at at him until he is far enough away for him to move freely again.

' _terrans truly are a strange race.'_ He thought as he continues his search as he ponders the strange statement.

Meanwhile Towa takes another turn to his left as he makes his way through the ruined halls of the ship. He then started to hear a significant amount of activity coming from the next corner of the hall and so he follows the sound until he reaches its course. He sees that it's coming from a door that seems to appear a little more well attended than the rest of the ship. He makes a quick sprint towards the door and stops near it. He slowly approaches it causing it to open automatically revealing what he presumes is the bridge of the ship with the crewman inside it not seeming to notice his entrance. How these terrans not able to notice some of the more obvious things he may never know.

He pushes the thought aside and slowly moves into the bridge listening in on whatever these crewmembers are talking about, bobbing and weaving between them. But so far he heard silence in the room with the only sound being the humming of the computers and the occasional steps from the crewman. It was then he hears two of them break the silence.

"How long do you think it's gonna take before we have enough to fix the lab?" A male crewman asked.

"I don't know, but I doubt it will be before the protoss finds out about it. Talk about a shity situation." A female crewman next to him replies.

"Yeah, definitely."

"You two, stop the nagging and pay attention to your post." A crewman of higher rank ordered causing the other two to end their discussion.

This intrigued the dark templar, a lab? Their worry about the protoss finding out about it? It's certainly different from what Talac'al reported. But from the looks of this he isn't gonna get much out of it with the tense atmosphere that surrounds these terrans. He starts making his way back towards the way he came in once again avoiding the crewman without a hitch and enters back into the dark and desolate hallways of the ship. He starts heading the way back towards the way he came his mind still pondering about what he heard in the bridge. He puts his left hand unto the side of his head, activating a comm device. "Karo, head back to where we separated, I may have got what we needed."

"I'm on my way." With that he deactivates the device and continues down the corridors

Within a minute he was back to the break with his brother waiting.

"What did you find brother?" He asked with great curiosity.

"That the terrans truly are hiding something from us as they have a lab of some sorts that they don't want us to find out about. Did you find anything of importance?"

"I'm afraid not, just ruined terminals and a worn out marine that yielded nothing of importance. This ship is truly in a dire condition."

"Well we have a piece of the puzzle to this mystery, let's report this back to Talac'al, and hope that Calitarn and Kayara have better fortune than us." Karo nodded and the two head back to the lift that brought them here with their mission completed as far they know.

* * *

A protoss shuttle flies above the atmosphere making its way towards its destination on an mission of espionage. It's equipped with a cloaking generator for this mission and on board are three protoss: the two dark templar Calitarn and Kayara, along with the pilot. Their mission is to investigate the station while two of their own investigate the terran cruiser on the surface.

Calitarn is a fairly old protoss that adorns the helmet and armour similar to a Zer'atai warrior but he lacks the cape associated with it, he sees it as an hindrance to his movement and so he casted it off. Kayara wears the female equivalent of the Lenassa armour but also the same helmet as her mentor which she claims is more of her kind of style.

However, their part is much more paerallus as they must face the harsh conditions of space while not being detected when they are eventually inside.

It was not long before the station came into view and the pilot engages the cloaking field as they come ever closer to the station.

"We are approaching the station, prepare for departure." The pilot announces and the two warriors start preparing as so as they pick up their staffs and approached the airlock. The anticipation starts building up primarily in Kayara and Calitarn can see this.

"Remember that we are scouting out the terrans, not engaging them." Calitarn spoke with a calm demeanor like a father would.

"Yeah I know, but the anticipation of getting out for once just excites me." Kayara responds in a childlike manner. Yet despite this she is still a capable and competent fighter in her own right. But she is still young and so Calitarn had made the choice to be her mentor while on this planet and accompanying her on missions around it.

"We're nearing the station, be ready." The pilot warns and the mentor and the student heed her.

"We are ready."

"Alright, you are jumping..." The pair prepare to jump as the shuttle grows closer. "Now!" At that moment the airlock opens sucking the dark templars out into the pareals of space and right above the station's hull.

They quickly make their way across the surface to the nearest hanger using all the time their shields can buy them to the fullest. They enter the facility through a seemingly active hanger entrance but they are surprised to see that the hanger is devoid of any life with the exception of a couple of crewman relaxing on the catwalks above, completely oblivious of the intruders. It's dark and run down and though it may not be in poor condition it's clear that it hadn't been used in a while.

"Let's split up and look for any useful information about this station. Avoid any and all contact the the crew."

"I know, no need to worry." And so they split up taking separate doors that lead into the bowels of the station completely unaware of what lies within.

* * *

 **Hello everyone, I was able to successfully repair my systems and get the hell out of there right before the Tal'darim were able to kill me, I ain't going back there again. As for the crystal, well that's for a secret project that I aint telling you about just yet. Also I hope you got the TTS reference in there.**

 **And if any of you are wondering what the heck the Zer'atai and the Lenassa are, well they are the two designs of the dark templar unit in game while in the lore the former is a tribe that fought the zerg during their invasion of Shakuras and are the ones wearing their bones and having that cool shadow scythe. The Lenassa just look similar to what they were in the first game and are just another Nerazim tribe in the lore.**

 **With that out of the way I hope you all have a great day or night wherever you may be.**


	7. Chapter 6: Notorious Discovery

**Merry late Christmas everyone! My human counterpart (Yes I have one) is currently in California hanging out with his family and probably tired at the moment but I helped out with the chapter. This one was a dosey I have to admit but it's still worth it in our opinion. Also I have a transmission from him that you need to hear:**

 _ **'Hello everyone, I'm glad you've all waited for this chapter. Right now I'm also practicing digital art and graphic design for some webcomic ideas that I have but they won't show up for a good while but at the very least you all know now. The work will be divided between these but they will still be in production it's just that these stories are the only things public as of now. See you later everyone.'**_

 **As you can see everything is going swimmingly for him, as for me, well I still have my own side project to work on so see you later as well.**

* * *

Ch 6: Notorious Discovery

Within the last working test chamber sits Ares at the very center, with his eyes closed and levitating an entire set of parts belonging to a test cube, all held in midair as if they were on strings. For 10 minutes he's been doing this task and as a result he's started showing visible signs of exhaustion and irritation. The stress tests implemented on him are not difficult by any means it's just that they are tedious and at some points boring, especially when his psionics are put to the test like this.

Meanwhile, four scientists look above in the observation deck with Sira among them as they take whatever notes they can on their data pads such as his endurance and physical growth. However, they all have seen a notable decrease in his actual abilities despite his psionic potential ever growing. This is due to the lack of proper nourishment outside of the ration bars that are being issued to everyone and as a result his body can't match the power in him and as so prevents the young hybrid from utilizing it to its full potential.

Sira knows this and the scientist in her is disappointed that she won't get the intended results that she needs but her maternal side is sadden to know that Ares is growing up in such poor conditions and is malnourished despite his biology. Even so she must continue her duty as a scientist as to get the most out of her research by finishing this final test as she moves her short brown hair out of the way and further observes Ares.

The blue eyed boy himself continues to hold the parts in midair despite this setback but the irritation is starting to get to him. Some time has past before his struggle starts showing among the parts as well as they all start to vibrate before gradually becoming more and more violent before they all fall to the ground around him. The exhausted boy slumps over in the in front of all the parts as the scientists above record the results.

"Eleven minutes and twenty-three seconds, a slight increase in duration from the previous test." A scientist reports with all of them typing their findings on their datapads. They also take notice of the child's exhaustion as well.

"I knew this wasn't such a good idea, if we continue on like this we'll never get the results we need." Another called out with Sira silently agreeing.

"Indeed, and all these test are draining our resources as well, I suggest that we postpone these tests until we have a much more sustainable source of income."

"I will consult Dr. Daniels about this." As the head scientist that works with Ares besides Daniels, Sira has the authority to sway his judgment assuming that he'll listen. But the scientist is right however, their resources are running low as they are diminishing their reserves at an alarming rate. At the very least they found a planet at which they can mine from to remedy this.

But for now she and the other scientists exit the room and into a lift that leads them to the room as to attend to Ares. When the lift reaches the bottom she goes ahead of the others as she approaches Ares and kneels beside him with a hand on his back with emerald eyes meeting sky blue. "Alright Ares, that's it, you did a good job. Now let's get you back to your room." She said in an almost motherly tone as she helps him up and guides him to the exit.

"Do you think she's getting too attached to Ares?" The third scientist whispers.

"Yes, but if it makes him comply for now, then we shouldn't interfere."

As they made their way the the exit the door opens to reveal a ghost and two marines waiting on the other side ready to escort the scientists back to their quarters. The ghost's name is Garis and he's been stationed here since the beginning and was the original donor for Ares' human portion of his DNA. However, he has no maternal connection with him unlike Sira. He also wears a modified psi blade gauntlet, a byproduct of their research on the protoss, along with his standard gear.

The group approaches the trio with Sira being more protective of the psionic child as they got closer. She's afraid that they may take Ares or even kill him since she started to hear rumors about the marines planning a mutiny because of the low resources with the tests only adding to that. As a result all the scientists are constantly on edge when around them because at any moment they could strike out and take control of the entire station and in the Sira's case that greatly involves the hybrid.

As for Garis she isn't as anxious around him as ghosts are naturally even tempered and more loyal than a standard marine which started off as a common criminal. But even then there are some reported cases of some going AWOL but that's a much rarer case.

This was the idea running through all the individuals of the test as they are escorted back to there rooms in the halls of the ruined station.

* * *

In the moderately lit hallways of the station, the dark templar Kayara swiftly transverses the metal veins of the station with the few crew members she ran into being none the wiser of her presence. Surprisingly there isn't a lot of detection around except for a few cameras that she was able to dodge with ease but then again the station doesn't look like it's in the greatest of conditions. The hallways themselves look poorly maintained with oxidized stains and small pieces of debris scattered around in piles on the floor. As for the crew aboard the station she has ran into very few of them with nothing of value to say except for some complaints about the before mentioned condition of the station.

This is all the young protoss saw as she continues to travel down the station's dirtied corridors until she came upon a small group in particular ahead of her in an adjacent hallway. What made her curious about this group are the terrans comprising it which are: two marines, four scientist, one ghost, with them all surrounding a child. The child himself is wearing a collar of some sort that no doubt is supposed to hinder his abilities as she can still sense a small trace of the latent psionic abilities in him.

She lets the group pass before she continued down it's direction as to follow them in hopes that they may lead her to something useful. She inches her way closer to the group who remain unaware of here presence until she got too ambitious as she was only a few feet behind the group causing the ghost to look behind him.

She instinctively rolls into the empty room besides her in an attempt to avoid his gaze and hid herself in the shadows as she readies her psi blade in anticipation for a battle. She listened for the footsteps of the terran telepath but only heard them grow more distant as the seconds went on. It was until she couldn't hear them anymore that she loosens up and looks over the doorway to see the group far ahead of her, seemly unaware of her presence.

Kayara considered on whether to continue following the group or not but eventually she figured that the risk of getting discovered is too great with that ghost around so she heads off in the opposite direction to continue her search for answers.

* * *

Meanwhile Calitarn navigates the dark metal halls as he travels ever closer towards the heart the station with his light footsteps being the only sound that inhabits the halls. The longer he continues down them the worse the condition seem to look as large dark stains are seen across the walls and ceilings continue to grow in frequency to the point of almost covering entire segments of the walls. The debris and darkness follow the same trend as the piles seem to get bigger even if it's ever so slightly and the hallway grows ever darker to the point of almost being pitch black. This doesn't phase the dark templar as it reminds him of his home-world of Shekurus but the actual sight itself raises his disgust to the point on how the terrans can live in such a condition.

It also stood deathly silent outside of his own actions as if it has been abandoned long ago.

He continues to wind through the halls among the filth until a sound of screeching metal breaks the monotony of silence catching Calitarn's attention. He quickly makes his way towards the source of the sound almost turning his sight into a blur as he zooms his way through the empty filth ridden walls. When he goes around a right turn he sees the source of the disturbance which is a door that looks partly opened door with a scientist sitting against a wall near it. The dark templar approaches the door bypassing the scientist with no problem whatsoever, entering the room.

What he sees inside stuns him, two stasis pods both with a creature within each if them that he had never seen before in all his years on Shakuras. The pod in front of him contains a creature that has the characteristics of a protoss with the only one being it's head but the body is anything but a protoss. Its sky blue eyes are unmoving but seem to radiate malice as they stare back at them in perpetual stillness disturbing the warrior.

He looks over to see the other stasis pod is inhabited by a much more beastly creature the looks more like a blue zerg creature with large horns protruding from the head like that of a demon's. Two large spider-like appendages that look like of smaller ultralisk blades hanging from it's back.

As strange as these creatures are it intrigued him in a way on how such creatures exists but something is off about these creatures, like as if they are not natural and hold a much darker meaning behind their existence. He searches the room to see another scientist looking over a console. He carefully approaches the terran and looks over his shoulder to inspect the console to sees the two figures of the creatures and their stats with all of them blue showing that they're stable. He reads the names of the creatures which are designated as Janusar and Cronos. He continues to scan the screen for any new information until he comes across an image showing an image of a segment of DNA presumably for each of them but what they say has Calitarn wide eyed: hybrid DNA stabilized.

Hybrid, of what? It can't be of zerg and protoss as their appearances implies that would be impossible for the likes of these terrans, right? He looks back at the pods and with another inspection of the creatures reality starts to take hold. These creatures are abominations form from the essences of both protoss and zerg, and he doesn't need to wonder where they got the protoss DNA.

Calitarn approaches the pod of the protoss looking hybrid, weapon at hand ready to strike down the monstrosity. He strike his scythe at the pod but right before he made contact a psionic wave erupts from what looks like the creature pushing him all the way back to the door. He quickly got back up to strike at it again but before he could the room turns red with the screaming cries of an alarm filling the room. He looks over to the console to see the terran staring at him wide eyed in fear with his hand on the console. He doesn't waste time on wondering how the terran can see him as he bolts out the room knocking the other scientist over as he now rushes through to now screaming halls.

* * *

15 minutes earlier

Kayara's patience is starting to run thin, she let her greatest chance at figuring this all out get away because she got too careless resulting in the terran telepath almost detecting her, no doubt that must've got him on edge at the very least. Now she's back to searching the barren halls to scrounge up any useful information about the station. Along with this impatience her anger grows as well with the silence around not helping either.

She decided to quickly lean against a nearby wall and let her mind refocus. 'It's okay Kayara, you may have messed up but remember Calitarn's teachings and calm your mind.' She said to herself before she did her equivalent of breathing in and out even making the sound in her mind despite not needing to. This calms her significantly and she carries on with the search within the guts of the station.

She still sees the same empty rooms and corridors as before before she comes across one door in particular. It looks much more managed and cleaned than the other doors and has a nameplate with text on it: Dr. Charles R.

This gets her mind running in both excitement and wonder as to why this door is so well maintained compare to the others. This must be of an individual of higher standing for this to be as well kept as it is in a station as run down as this. And with high status comes valuable information that she's been searching for. However, this also comes at a high risk of being detected as this door seems to be the only way in the room with no vents big enough for her to climb in to be seen so she may be noticed by this Daniel the moment she walks in.

She stands in front of the door thinking through her options when suddenly the hallway turns to red and alarms start blaring making the young protoss jump in shock. She frantically searched for any incoming terran forces but doesn't see anything as of now. That ghost must have known about her all along and acted dumb to mislead her and then rad her out.

Now that her cover is blown she might as well take the more direct approach so she tries to access the door but it seems to be locked. She activates her psi blade and starts carving a hole into the door. She struggled as the door is stronger than she thought but eventually she carved out a hole just as big as her and enters the room. She was greeted with immediate hostility as gunshots rang out and her shield flash and shimmer as they block the shots. The perpetrator is kneeling behind a flipped desk with his revolver smoking from the barrel. Kayara swiftly closes the gap between the two, jumping over the desk and kicking his gun out of his hand. She then got behind the scientist and held her blade to his neck.

"Alright, you're going to give me what I want right now or I'll separate your head from your shoulders! Now give me the information that I need!" She threatened bringing her blade only inches from his throat. He reaches down to one of his pockets and pulls out a data pad which has all of his recorded findings from both him and his compatriots on their experiments. "At least you're one of the smart few of your race." She remarks as she pushes him towards the ground and starts leaving the office.

"You'll never get away with this protoss scum." Daniels said as she walks away while she scoffs at the terran's feeble attempt at a threat. Not long after however, she felt a force hit her forcing her to raise her arm in self-defense. She took a look to see that it's the same ghost from before with his rifle raised. She rushed at him blocking each shot with her blade. When she was close enough she strikes at him only to be met with a blue psi blade blocking It. Dumbfounded, Kayara ducks under him and starts running back the way she came in the now screaming station.

* * *

"Sir, you alright!?" Garis yelled as he attends to the Doctor.

"I'm fine, but the protoss have the information." He says as he stands up.

"Shall I pursue them?"

"No, it was only a matter if time before the protoss find out and we don't have the forces to stop them. Get the order out to gather up all our assets out after the alarms are rested. I'll notify Draco of this event."

"Everything sir?"

"Everything."

* * *

All of Calitarn's hearts are pumping as he races through the red halls as fast as his legs can carry him. The once silent hallways are now filled with the blaring cries of the alarm and crimson light as he made turn after turn caring little in regard of stealth as he barrels through any of the crewman that are panicking. In a matter of minutes he reached the hanger that he started off in. He sees Kayara just ahead of her and starts to catch up with her. They both approach the large black void ahead of them as fast as they could, with the alarm blaring in their ears. They get closer and closer to it and within seconds there is complete silence.

The vastness of space almost surprised the mentor for a moment as he has yet to grow accustomed to this sort of environment. As they float in the silent void for a few seconds they are all of a sudden warped into the interior of a protoss ship. He figured that it's their shuttle as the sound starts rushing back to him. He looks over to Kayara to see her recovering from the ordeal.

"Wow, that's enough excitement for one day." She remarked as she sat herself up.

"Are you okay Kayara?" The mentor asked his apprentice.

"Yeah, are you?"

"I am as well."

"Sorry for causing the alarms to go off." She said in a somber tone.

"Do not blame yourself young one. I was the one who set them off." This caused her to look at her mentor dumbfounded at the statement, she can't believe someone like him to set off the alarm in such a ruined station.

"But how?"

"I've discovered something that shouldn't exist within the darkest parts of the station, two pods with abominations that have the DNA of both protoss and zerg."

"What? I thought that it was impossible for them to mix." This only further shocked the fledgling warrior.

"So did I, but what I saw down there was not an illusion. The terrans have created monstrosities that they cannot hope to control as I have sensed their consciousness as they did mine , and it is full of malice to what I presume is their creators. What have you found in the meantime?"

"I've gotten this." She holds up a data pad that she's been holding on to during their escape. He approaches her as to inspect it with his pupil. As she tried to access it however, it reveals a password screen. "Of course. I was a fool to not demand him for a password as well!" She said as she face palms herself a in anger.

Calitarn puts a hand on her shoulder "It's okay, what matters is that you have retrieved something vital to our mission. Let the phasesmiths worry about accessing it, for now we rest." This does little to comfort the young templar as the chamber grew silent as it makes its way back towards the planet's surface.

* * *

Meanwhile at the Sanctum the mining operation is still going smoothly with over 10k worth of minerals and 2k worth of vespene from a newly discovered geyser in stock. However, the captain of the ship is anything but positive at the moment, as he has been worrying about the protoss ever since the negotiations with them especially with how some protoss stayed behind to keep watch on them. The air matched this as well as the crewman also felt unnerved by the recent events with the silence only adding to all this.

This silence was broken when the console in front of Draco sprang to life revealing the face if his colleague Dr. Daniel making the man and the rest if the bridge jump.

"Draco are you there?" Daniel asked with visible distress.

"I am, what's the situation?" Draco responds immediately wondering why he even called.

"The protoss, they found us out." Dread sets in to every single member of the bridge the moment those words were uttered. It is more than what they felt when they first met the protoss and the captain is feeling the brunt of it.

"I'll b-be on my way immediately then." His voice slightly quivers as he said these words before the screen disappears. The room is left in total silence once again but with the fear and tension raised to a level unseen before as all the crewman stare with eyes full of nothing but fear. Once again the captain must address his subordinates. "Call every SCV in quietly and prepare the crew, we will leave without delay." Despite his best efforts his voice of defiance and bravery has only came out as a voice of fear and despair.

* * *

 **Alright I'm starting a new section the end that is called the Fun Fact of The Day where I present a brief but interesting facts that I found that you may or may not heard of. If you do not believe me on these then you can search them up yourself. Also don't be afraid to correct me if I happen to get these wrong, I can't be right at everything. Let's start off with today:**

 **Fun Fact:**

 **The rumbling that you feel in your stomach is actually just gas and other materials being pass through your intestines but it can be digestive problems as well.**

 **Let me know how you feel about this little segment, I thought it might be fun to teach you something fun here but if the majority of you don't like it then I'll stop.**

 **With all that out the way I hope you all have a nice day or night wherever you are!**


	8. Chapter 7: Harrowing Escape

**Guys, I am super,duper,ultra, mega-**

" **I think they got the idea from the first adjective."**

 **Right robotic me, well I really am sorry for the long delay of the chapter but collage and work are taking up most of my time to write and as a result have greatly slowed my progress. Do not worry though as the progress is only slowed rather than stopped and as a result you should expect malasis progress until May since that's the month where the last class ends.**

" **Yeah, he's been busy with boring work while I'm busy in dimensional work." Is it that secret project that you've been talking about?**

" **Yes, but that will be seen in due-"**

 ***Crash!* What was that?**

" **Oh that's the zergling I bought back here during one of my trips. I named him Arkin." You brought what into my house!? Get it out!**

" **What? I just need to train him." It's ripping apart my room! Don't let it get near the computer!**

" **Dammit Arkin, get down from there!"**

 **Oh my god, let's just get this chapter going, I need to help my alternate self with killing this pest.**

" **We're not killing him!"**

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Harrowing Escape**

Fear runs through Ares as Sira holds him in her arms in his now crimson red room as the alarm blair out their loud cries. He doesn't know what is going on as he buries his head into her chest with eyes closed as tight as he could make them and with a grip like that of a scared child holding their mother. As for Sira she is afraid as well but knows all too well on what the alarms tell: there is an intruder on the station. Though it never happened before the fact that there was nothing signifying that it is a drill is what makes her think that there really is something or someone threatening on board the station.

Minutes feel like hours to the frightened pair as the ear splitting schreechs of the alarm continue to fill the room relentlessly.

The boy then hears a familiar hum despite the alarm's presence before hearing the voice of his unseen brother: "Do not fear brother, the threat these alarms entail has passed and soon they will be silent once again." Janusar's raspy voice reassures making the young boy loosen up a little. Just as the hybrid predicted the room went dead silent in a mere moment with the walls returning to their pure white coloring but the hybrid quickly breaks the silence. "Be ready for our escape, this event may have greatly accelerated our plans." Ares ponders these words as he releases his hold on Sira and looks into the eyes of the only person he ever has a true connection with. What his brother is willing to to do is made difficult due to this bond, in fact he wants her to come along with them but when he thought of this Janusar said she is acting this way in order to keep him here, but he doesn't believe that. Somehow he can see the genuineness of her feelings towards him when everyone else never even talked to him outside of experiments. Even then there is a small hint of doubt in his mind that she even want or even con come along with her as she is nothing like him and presumably to his brothers.

These thoughts were interrupted when the door opened revealing Garis along with with two marines escorting him almost startling the young hybrid.

"We need you two to go to the main hangar now, Daniels' orders." Garis said ordered.

"What's going on here?" Sira asked nervously.

"Daniels has issued a station-wide evacuation of all high priority assets. You must come with us now." The scientist stares in confusion for a couple of seconds before coming to the realization as she turns to Ares with a fearful expression.

"Let's go Ares." She said as she grabs his hand.

"Sira, what's going on?" He asked with her pausing before answering.

"We're running Ares, we're running."

* * *

Meanwhile within the dark bowels of the station two scientists and an engineer are working on the stasis pods of the hybrids with them starting on Janusar's pod first. They are behind it trying to safely detach the pod from the wall for transport as the engineer guides them.

"Alright so you pull this cable off gently." The engineer said putting an emphasis on the last word. As instructed Adam pulls the cable the engineer has pointed and pulled it out of the socket, earning a faint wearling sound from the pod.

"Is that normal?" Mark asked.

"Yes, now to decouple the other restraints." He looks up to see the secondary restraints keeping the pod stationary as he starts to work on them.

Unbeknownst to them the seemingly frozen hybrid is actually about to make his first move since their birth. The eyes of Janusar suddenly begin to glow before the glass begins to crack under his power. At first it started as micro cracks that went unnoticed by the terrans as they start to spread out in an invisible web all across the glass' surface. Within a few seconds larger cracks start to form in the place of the micro cracks and this time the sound catches Adam's attention. He checks on the pod to see what's going on.

"Guys, we have a problem." Adam said in worry.

"We don't need any more of your yapping Adam, now help us out."

"But the glass is cracking apart. I don't think that's normal." The blonde states which gets their attention as they join their compatriot in the sight as the glass continues to break apart.

"Your right, that isn't normal." The trio start backing away from the pod as the creature inside becomes barely visible from the numerous cracks that cover the glass. They were halfway across the room before the glass shatters across the room as they shield themselves with their arms just in time before being pelted by glass shards covering their arms in small cuts.

What they saw had froze them in fear as Janusar floats out of the pod, the first time they ever saw the hybrid in action at all. It looks at them with eyes seemingly full of disdain as Mark averts his eyes towards the terminal which is only a few meters from him. If he can make it he can try to warn Daniels about this, but the hybrid is right there and from the looks of it isn't afraid to kill them at the slightest provocation. He decided to take his chances and bolt for the terminal but before he could make it numerous glass shards puncture his body and he falls to the floor bloodied right in front of the terminal.

The other two watch in terror as the glass shards start accumulating around the creature readying for another strike. The engineer was the next to run but straight towards the exit hoping to escape the nightmare that he was caught up in. In an instant however, he was met with the same fate as the scientist before him as more almost invisible projectiles puncture his suit and through his body, splattering blood all across the floor and walls.

Adam looks at the lifeless, blood drenched bodies of his former colleagues before looking back at their murderer in absolute fear. The fear held a tight grip around him as his breaths become more sporadic as the creature slowly moves closer to him. The approaches him until it was right in front of him, his figure towering over him as it looks down into his wide, fright filled eyes menacingly. The silence in the room was starting to get to the scientist before the creature spoke.

"You've been the greatest source of entertainment for me over the years and I really am grateful for that. That's why I will spare you." Janusar said, his serpent-like voice filling the terran's mind before he was flung into a wall. The surrounding pipes start to twist and turn before they break free of their hinges and floated down towards him. They started to bend around him into numerous restraints that went from his neck right down to his ankles with the sheer weight of them being enough to keep him down.

He struggled but to no avail as the hybrid redirects his attention towards his brother and approaches its pod until he was looking directly into its eyes. He placed his hand onto the glass and soon cracks start to sprout from where he made contact until it completely enveloped the glass, shattering it into tiny pieces. Out comes the more beastly of the hybrids as its arms and appendages slowly emerge from the pod as they pull out the rest of the creature from its prison starting from its horned head and ending with the rest of the body. Janusar backs away before the creature lands on the ground almost limply right in front of him.

"Rise Cronos, your freedom is at hand." He encourages his brother which made him stir a little before rising before him to stand for the first time in its life. The size of the creature exceeds that of even its protoss-like sibling as it stretches out all of its limbs, the dark blue carapace crackling as the monster's limbs reach out then retreat back to the body before it growls in satisfaction. "Now we shall go and liberate our youngest brother from the hands of those vile terrans." Then they set off with Cronos taking the lead as he forcibly opens the door for his brother allowing him entrance to the exit out before he followed him out leaving only what remains of the crewman in silence.

Adam continues to struggle with his restraints with the same result, he doesn't know why he's even trying anymore, the metal piping far exceeds his own strength which isn't much to begin with. He decided to lay there in defeat with the silence once again dominating the room. He then starts to hear some movement near him and looks over to see Mark starting to drag his own body across the floor towards the terminal leaving a short trail of blood behind. He grabs unto the terminal and starts lifting himself up with all the strength that he could muster as he steadily rises, struggling in the process. He leans himself onto the computer spewing a little blood in the process before he started to type on the computer. For a couple of seconds he does this before he started to speak.

"Daniels...we have a...problem…*cough**cough*…the hybrids...they're...free..." Mark forced out before he collapsed to the floor once again with a thud as the blood loss finally gets to him. This time though he is truly dead as he remains unmoving leaving Adam alone once again to live out his last moments of life in the dark room.

* * *

Within the golden hanger Malikan looks over his slowly growing army as zealots start moving into formation in front of Talac'al and a void ray flies above to join up with the main force. This is the first time he would ever lead a battle since the Zerg invasion of Aiur and even then it was Talac'al who had took primary command at the time. This first time experience makes him nervous due to the immense responsibility and expectations involved despite being just a minor executor. Add the fact that his mentor was right about the terran newcomers lying to them just to save themselves which makes him doubt his own judgement and adds to his anxiety.

He looks back down to the warriors as the group gradually grows as from zealots, adepts, and stalkers trickle in adding to the group. He decides to join Talac'al as to strengthen his bond with his fellow protoss and hopefully have them see him as a strong leader and starts approaches a nearby lift. Once he was on it it started to descend onto the ground level where the everyone else is for a couple of seconds before the trip ended and he starts to approach the group again. He wasn't even halfway there before the elder protoss acknowledges his presence by turning towards his direction.

"Greetings executor, you have come at a prefect time. May you address your warriors before they set off to battle." Talac'al announces towards the group as the young high templar eventually meets up alongside his mentor.

He takes what is the equivalent of a preparatory breath and so he addresses his subordinates.

"My warriors, today we show these terrans out might and the consequences of deceiving us, For many here this will be the first battle in years but I doubt it will be the last for you all. I wish you all the greatest of blessings in the battle ahead." Malikan announces. However his audience stood silent in the seconds that followed with some murmuring being heard among them. This was what he was afraid of, his timid nature has gotten the best of him and as a result his tone has failed to inspired even his own warriors. The fact that most of them also have a connection to the kala only made it worse for him as they can feel his anxiety and fear as if it was their own. Deciding that it isn't ideal for him to stay any longer he turns away and heads away from the group but not before addressing Talac'al as well: "I...will be in my chambers meditating." Leaving him with somber words, he heads back towards the lift and leaves the more hardened warriors to their own devices.

The old protoss watches his disciple in worry as he leaves, he has always seen potential in the young templar with his psionic prowess improving at an almost unnatural rate but as to have never seen much conflict in his own life and through involuntary birthright in mind he has turned into a timid minded individual, hindering his potential as a leader. The only reason that he's still in the position that he's in was because the elder had vouched for the up-and-coming warrior and has kept him under his guidance since then. He'll never give up on him no matter what the rest may think of him, but what worries him is that of the youngling giving up on himself.

But such thoughts will have to be pondered later, he's got an army to lead.

* * *

Everything for Ares is moving so fast for him, one second he was in the arms of Sira in his room next he's running through the halls in a panic that he doesn't understand. The scientist holds his wrist in an iron grip as they, along with armed escort, as they maneuver their way through the station's ruined, metal interior with the utmost haste.

They are finally approaching a doorway that a couple of other scientist ahead of them are just going through. When they reached it the two went in first into a giant hanger which is occupied with the rest of the crewman all gathered up to await something. Among them looks like a few big red armored soldiers, someone in a smaller white suit like that of a marine with a cross on a shield, and a couple more marines.

But what really caught the boy's attention though is the sight that makes up the entirety of the massive opening on the other side of the hanger: a large green planet in what seems like the void of space that takes up over half of the view. Its color is as radiant if not even more so than the light in his room with great blue streaks cutting through the expansive green. He had never seen such a sight before while in the confines of the station but Sira had told him about how planets such as this are like. A place full of life that roamed freely whenever it wants to, something he wanted to experience alongside her and his brothers. He wonders if they're going down there now which is odd for him as he was never given the chance to leave the station even when he wasn't doing anything else.

His wonder was cut short when he caught side of a flickering yellow light that's progressively growing in size and brightness. As the light grew closer he is able to make out the shape of an object inside the light itself, a familiar shape that he had seen only once before: the battlecruiser Sira calls the _Sanctum_. He remembers seeing it once two years ago when he was running through the halls full of energy and had accidently discovered it before being returned to his room. Now he wonders what it was doing on the planet.

The ship itself grew in size as it drew closer to the station with the boy staring in awe, but as for Sira only worry came through her as she knows something is wrong but what she still doesn't know. But all she really cared about though is following orders in order to keep Ares safe.

It was close to the hanger when a few bright blue flashes appeared far behind it and in their place some strange ships appeared which he had never heard of ever in his life. Though he now wonders if they have to do anything with what happened recently, Sira became deathly afraid as she recognized them as protoss ships. It was then the Sanctum came into the hanger, it's size half that of the opening itself, causing strong winds to sweep over everyone carrying dust with it. Sira covered the young hybrid with herself as the dust filled winds continue their assault upon the crew.

It all ended when the ship finally lands in front of them, its titanic bow casting a shadow over the entire group. Ares' immense fascination at the metal wonder was cut short when a strong tremor was felt among everyone. He and Sira looked to see a long, blue beam shooting out of one of the ships. The brunette didn't hesitate to run the both of them towards the ship when she saw its main ramp lower unto the ground along with Garis, the two marines, and the rest of the crew following suit.

What they failed to notice however, is a small protoss ship entering the hanger right next to the battlecruiser only to stop. It oriented itself upwards and its two fins spread open like the pedals of a flower. Not long after numerous pillars of light appeared below it which luminate for a solid five seconds before twelve zealots, and eight blue walkers never seen before appear. Garis, and by extension everyone else, catch notice of this.

And for the first time the station's inhabitants are now caught in a battle for survival.

* * *

Garis didn't waste any time as he shouts out the orders for all armed personnel to engage the protoss forces until the those unarmed can get on the ship. The five firebats take to the frontline as a medic accompanies them. The numerous marines put themselves behind them, gauss rifles raised ready to fire. The zealots were the first to engage the terrans as they swing their psi-blades into the red flamers, their shields fizzle as their shield their wearer from the scorching flames. The lone medic heals the firebats to the best of her abilities as the marines behind them unload their rifles further diminishing their shields.

The blue machines join in as they open fire on the marines slowly cutting them down. However, Garis counter attacks as he opens fire at the blue constructs cutting out chunks of their shields with each shot. Just as he was about to deplete one of their shields it teleports away before he could take another shot at it. At least he's relieving some of the pressure off the others.

As for the zealots they were cut down but not before they take down a firebat. The stalkers regroup to another larger series of light pillars but when they faded two of them had nothing appearing out of them. Garis was the only one who noticed this and becomes suspicious as to what the protoss are planning. Shortly after another tremor can be felt as the warships outside continue their assault on the helpless station. Still wondering about the two spots he puts his weapons up to scan the area for them but only saw nothing until he caught another firebat fall to the ground and then another confusing the men.

Thinking of the protoss he fought before he immediately aims and fires an EMP at where he thinks the assassins are, hitting the mark by revealing this time two of them, with the one he believes is a female he can recognize. Everyone immediately started to open fire on them causing one to retreat but the other that he knows teleporting after him to his surprise.

He narrowly dodges the psi-blade of the assassin as he holsters his rifle and activates his own psi-blade and engages the protoss. He swings his blade towards his opponent which she easily dodge as she roles behind him for her counter attack. He blocks her strike, the blades sparkling for a brief moment before they part. Her cloak reactivates though and she once again becomes unseen by the ghost, he immediately wields his rifle and stood his guard waiting for his enemy to make the next .

Yet again the station shook violently and it groans as some part of it gives way inadvertently saving him from the protoss' next attack by making him stumble just as she struck. He senses the assassin and fires another EMP revealing her once again. He quickly looks over to see the troops being pushed back by the protoss and noticing that the last crewmember is coming on board he gives off the order for them to retreat into the ship. He looks back to his opponent and narrowly dodges another strike. He needs to find a way to get the protoss off the ship or they'll never be safe.

It was then he started to hear metal screeching apart far behind him just as he dodges another strike. He looks over to see a large, blue, horned figure breaking through the doorway that is clearly too small for it. He anticipated this, he had intercepted a warning message from a dying survivor who was meant to transport the hybrids on board and as a result he deemed them as hostiles as well.

With no time to waste he runs to the side of the hanger and pressed a large button causing the ramp to retract as the soldiers still run upon it. However, he sees that the two hybrids have started to charge towards him with no regard of the protoss near them, sky blue eyes set solely on his direction. The assassin, seemingly unaware or just ignoring the two creatures continues her assault on the terran as she swings once again but he parries the strike once again and their duel continues as everyone runs around them, worrying more about themselves. Strike after strike they he parries and retaliates with his own attack only for the same to happen to him only prolonging the dance of death between blue and green.

This was all interrupted when the zerg-like hybrid lands into the hanger between the two with both combatants almost startled by its intrusion as its protoss looking counterpart simply flies into the ship. The protoss assassin's cloak returns once again and she decides to attack the hybrid right in front of her, hoping to end it swiftly but this was a mistake on her part as the hybrid seems to have noticed her presence despite her invisibility and smacks her with great force sending her flying out of the hanger. At the same time the ship starts to lift off the ground leaving whatever protoss is in the hanger behind.

He looks at the hybrids who are now staring at him with bloodlust in their eyes only for the zerg-like hybrid to run off deeper into the hanger towards an unknown objective leaving him with its companion. He has now been traded one opponent for another.

* * *

Sira's fear reached an all time high as she watches from the lift as one of the hybrids that she recognizes as Cronos charges right towards her like a raging bull ignoring the soldiers that are between it and her. It tramples a couple of hapless marines as it continues to charge . It roars loudly causing her and the other scientists to cower in fear with the former putting Ares behind her in a protective manner. Though they were high above the floor that didn't stop the hybrid from jumping as high as it could, halving the distance between them then start climbing up the rest of the lift shaft. Cronos is gaining on him much faster than the lift could carry the group and the helpless scientist could only watch and plea for their lives as it grows closer.

But for Ares, despite the fear he's feeling from the whole event itself isn't as fearful as the others as a sense of familiarity dwells in him when he first saw the creature. He doesn't know why but there's some sort of connection that he could feel between them, it could be Janusar or even Cronos that he was told about by him. But he can hear the pleading of the people around:

"Please god protect me!"

"Can this thing go any faster!?"

"I don't want to die here!"

He wishes that he can reassure them that they're safe and that they are her just for him but he feels the lift suddenly jolt up violently making everyone yelp in fear and startling the boy. Then a large clawed hand rises up and grabs hold of the lift and as it raises the creature's body with the weight causing the lift to collapse even further as more of the creature is shown to the terrified group. When it stops its figure shadows the entire group as they all huddle in fright with Sira in front trying to put up a defiant face towards the growling monster as she kept the younger hybrid behind her. This defiance was short lived however as the creature effortlessly swat her out of the way into the wall of the shaft and grabs Ares. With his objective complete Cronos leaps off the lift causing it to start screeching down to the bottom with its screaming cargo.

When it finally hits the ground with a loud crash Sira opens her eyes struggled as she reached out for Ares as he was being carried away by Cronos.

"Ares…" She said weakly as everything started to become dark which she will succumb to but not before she heard what she thought is Ares calling out for her.

Garis dodges another projectile from the hybrid as he fires two more shots that are absorbed by the creature's shield. All of a sudden its shield starts to fizzle rapidly as rapid gunfire sounds off which all come from five marines that have joined the ghost in the fight causing it to retreat.

It quickly flies towards the dropship and stops right in front of it, the pilot unaware on what's about to happen to her. The protoss-like hybrid looks into the cockpit and easily dominates the pilot's mind with ease and it orders her to open the ship's hatch. Garis and the marines catch up to the creature and are about to open fire on it when the second hybrid joins the first but with Ares in hand. He immediately orders the marines to hold their fire as he has orders to not harm him under any circumstances which allows the hybrids to enter the ship unhindered. But just before the psionic hybrid enters after its brothers he looks at the ghost with its piercing glowing blue eyes; if the creature had a mouth it could be giving a smirk in victory knowing that they can't do anything to stop them.

When it finally enters the dropship the hatch closes and the dropship starts to take off from the ground and it files out of the hanger unhindered as the dropship enters the void of space.

Despite how easy it is for Janusar to control the pilot he has to concentrate just to make sure the ship can fly properly as they get away from the battlecruiser. Meanwhile in the cargo hold Cronos holds a heartbroken Ares in his four armed embrace.

But before they got far however, the ship violently rumbled as a large boom can be heard causing Cronos to hold his younger sibling even tighter. Outside the hybrids are being followed by a protoss scout craft that has discovered them during their escape. Janusar takes evasive maneuvers as a response to this aggression but due to the clunkiness of the ship his options are limited at what he can do. He tries spinning, diving, and doing serpentine like movements to try to shake off their pursuer to little avail as the protoss pilot keeps up with him. It fires another volley causing more damage to the ship.

The dropship may be heavily armored but even it can't withstand this punishment forever and knowing this he needs to find a solution to this and fast. He starts looking into the pilot's mind in order to find something useful that could save them until he quickly finds what he needs: an experimental warp drive that is being tested on the dropship. Though it isn't guaranteed that it would work properly this warp drive could get them out of here and without any better options he has the pilot access and activate the warp drive.

' _Warp Drive: 0%'_ The screen displays as the bar begins to rise.

Another volley is shot to the ship further damaging the craft,

' _Warp Drive: 20%'_

Janusar continues to try to avoid the craft with the same failed result.

' _Warp Drive: 50%'_

The protoss scout fires yet another volley causing the ship to smoke even more now.

' _Warp Drive: 90%'_

Shot after shot, attempt after failed attempt to escape, Cronos holds his fragile little brother tightly.

' _Warp Drive:100%'_

The moment he saw the meter completely fill up he instantly activates it and a whirl can be heard and humming can be felt all across the ship as the generator begins to activate. The sensations begin to rise as space starts feeling distorted around them little by little until it reaches to an almost unbearable point for the child. The scout unleashes one more valley and just as the projectiles make contact the ship stretches out like a rubber band and disappears within the vastness of space.

* * *

 ***Phew* We finally got that thing into the basement, why did you bring a zergling in here in the first place, we both know they're feral when not under a hive mind right?**

" **I just wanted a combat companion while on my trips and I decided to stop by your place to show him to you." Whatever, just find a way to tame him if you're gonna keep him, just keep him away from me until then.**

" **Thank you, now you can continue with your fact of the day now."**

 **Right, well the fact of the day is:**

 **Neptune and Uranus have more mass than Jupiter and Saturn despite being smaller because they contain less lighter gases like helium but they contain more hydrogen and other heavier gases.**

 **Now with that out of the way we hope you have a great day or night wherever you are.**

" **See you all later!"**


	9. Chapter 8: Out-of-World Expierience

**So how's the training going with that zergling as of now?**

" **It's going well, I just had to steal some sort of psi-device in order to actually control the thing first off."**

 **You just love to cause trouble don't you?**

" **What's the point of having interdimensional powers if you can't have fun with them? Plus it was more convenient that way."**

 **You're gonna be the death of me one of these days. Plus, why do you always come to me of all people, isn't there another me that can deal with your antics better than I?**

" **To be honest I frankly don't know about the others, they're probably dead or just total a-holes for all I know. Now do you have a story to be continued."**

 **Oh right, let the story continue everyone, you've been waiting long enough.**

* * *

Chapter 8: Out-of-World Experience

Numerous protoss vessels continue to assault the ruined ship as it desperately tries to gain distance between it and the doomed science station. Within the bridge, captain Draco is trying to keep his cool with Dr. Daniels letting his fear show as clear as daylight. Multiple protoss fighters continue to carpet the ship's hull with the few guns left trying to shoot them down with minimal success. Most of them were soon turn into scrap metal by another strafing run form a group of interceptors leaving the ship almost defenseless.

"What is the status on the warp drive?" He demanded, hoping for any good news in the chaos.

"It will be ready in a few minutes, sir!" A crewman answered.

"As soon as it's ready use it. I don't care were as long as it's away from here!" Another explosion can be heard as the protoss start to target the ship's engines seemingly knowing about their plan. One by one they combust into a cloud of flame and smoke until the secondary engines are all that remains slowing the ship to a crawl.

The captain's resolve starts to degrade like the ship around him as each second passes by. He looks over to see his old friend terrified as he hold onto the railing for dear life.

More and more blue bolts hit across the _Sanctum's_ surface like hale as they chip at the helpless ship little by little. Any point defense cannons left were quickly destroyed leaving the now completely defenseless ship at the mercy of the aliens. Another large tremor can be felt across the ship as a void ray joins in the carnage.

"Status!" The captain wants a miracle of any sort at this point.

"It's ready now sir!"

"Punch it!" As ordered the helmsman activates the ship's warp drive. Hearing this everyone on the bridge braced themselves as a loud humming noise can be heard across the ship. Soon the entire ship stretches rapidly leaving only green particles behind as they escape their pursuers.

As soon as it all started it ended as the ship appeared in an unknown part of space and the force of the jump lurching everyone forward as the ship suddenly decelerates and everything goes quiet. They look out to only see the black void of space dotted with an endless number stars and the many breaches in the ship's surface as the fires quickly die out.

Daco took a sigh of relief knowing that the threat has finally passed and despite the ship's condition it is still functional if only barely so that gives them a chance to find a world if any are in the vicinity. Not wasting any time he took the initiative.

"Everyone sound off." one by one each crewman started to do so comforting the the captain a little. "Good, now what's the status of the ship."

"It seems that most of the engines are are heavily damaged and life support is slowly failing. We're now adrift in space sir." Another crewman states as he overlooks the screen showing the almost entirely red display of the ship.

"Then have the engineers fix the engines the best they can and have a distress signal carried out. Surely there is someone out there who can be able to hear us."

"I'm afraid that last part ain't going to happen." A deep voice behind the two said. The whole bridge looked around to see a firebat accompanied by two marines blocking the entrance.

"State your name soldier." He ask almost confused at the flamer's intrusion.

"I'm Marcos and you, are relieved of duty." The hulking flamer said with a sickening grin that made even the captain flinch a little. "We've been in some deep shit for four years and my boys were all expecting to guard a egghead facility, not a junkyard."

"We were acquiring resources for that very reso-"

"And look where that got us!" The firebat yelled in anger. "Our asses are now stranded in god knows where with a ship that is barely being held together! Under your leadership we've been through nothing but trouble and all so that these nerd heads can make their little pets!" His voice only grew in anger as he points towards the frightened scientist. "Now we're taking control of this whole ship and we both know what comes next." The two marines raise their gauss rifles in anticipation to gun the two down. Daniel pleads to the captain to calm his troops down but in the end they aren't going to listen regardless.

"This is munity you are commiting, you know that right?" Draco holds his ground despite his situation.

"Not if no one else knows." His wide grin returns as the marines are waiting to fire. "Snuff them out." In an instant the marines open fire but not before Draco push the doctor over the edge as he gets gun downed by dozens of bullets causing the entire bridge to be filled with horrified screams.

Within seconds the carnage ends as the corps of the former captain now lying in a pool of his own blood. The three traitors walk up to where their superior once stood as the bridge simply stood silent in fear of what just happened. When they reached the end Marcos simply kicked the corpse aside and crossed in arms in triumph. Alright you all, I'm the new captain of this bucket now. My first order is to get this tin can back up and running agai-" His speech was interrupted when more gunshots rang out causing even more cries of fear to be heard. "What the hell you dumbass! Unless you know how to work this ship I suggest you keep that little trigger finger in check." The firebat responded in anger, coming close to frying the marine in question.

"But one of these guys was yelping for help boss." The marine responded sparing himself the pyromancer's wrath.

"Then go down there are finish him off, and while you're at it I want you two to look for that scientist. I want him alive so I can fry him myself." The two marines follow their superior's orders as one went to finish off the crewman while the other went off to locate the doctor.

The one sent to deal with the crewman approaches the bloodied man as the others that are close to him simply cower in fear hoping to avoid their compatriots fate. As he came close though he sees a hand reach out for a red button and pushing it right before the soldier reached him.

"What do you think you're doing?" He asked jokingly as he picks up the dying man by the back of his collar and face him towards himself.

"Someone..will...know...soon enough." The crewman said before he coughed up blood and letting death embrace him.

"Well shit."

"It seems that we got ratted out boys, have those engineers work to get this ship moving now. Last thing we want is to get into any more trouble." He reaches for the intercom controls, or what it appears to be for him, and presses a button larger than the rest and speaks into the console: "This is your new captain speaking, for all marines on the ship get to it that those engineers work on those engines on the double and for any of those noncompliant, give them some "motivation" to work. As for all the eggheads, they're dead weight."

* * *

The green pastures of the forest sway peacefully in the cool night as the wind brushes against each individual grass straw and leaf, the dark skies illuminated by numerous stars light years away and the moon being the brightest in the sky. The animals on the ground are silent as they are either sleeping, silently hunting for their prey, or treading lightly to live another day.

This peaceful silence was broken when a green light flashes high in the sky and is immediately replaced with a ship. It starts to accelerate across the sky as a wall of flame starts to envelop the ship's front end as it starts to rapidly draw closer to the planet's surface. Inside young Ares is gripping tightly against Cronos as the ship shakes violently from the entry. Meanwhile in the cockpit Janusar is trying his best to keep the ship stable through the pilot but to little avail. All he can do now is control the ship's violent decent.

Pieces soon start to come off like paper as it reaches the limit at which it can sustain damage, leaving a trail of black smoke . More and more flakes began to fall off the further the ship goes through the planet's atmosphere making.

Janusar can only watch as the ground rapidly comes closer by the second, trying his best to stabilize the ship. These seconds feel like hours as the ship is torn apart even further by the atmosphere.

It all ended when suddenly the sensation of weight overtook even the likes of him followed by the ship now driving itself through the dirt and trees. He covers his face as to avoid any debris that fly inside while staying low as to keep his stability. Cronos meanwhile has the rest of his limbs dug into the ship as he holds his fragile younger sibling tightly. Ares himself only holds on to his brother for deer life with eyes shut as tight as possible praying that this all would just end. And just as he wished it all did as the whole ship came to a stop and everything went almost completely silent.

After looking around and then to Ares for a few seconds, Cronos releases his hold on the ship and relaxes his hold on his terrified brother. He looks over again to see his protoss equivalent exit the cockpit who took a quick look at them both and approaches the exit which Cronos went went ahead and opened up for him. What they see is the carnage that the crash left behind as a long deep trench spans almost what looks like a mile and is deep enough to reach halfway up his body if he wasn't floating. Broken and nearly uprooted trees line the trench as they lie defeated from the ship's mass and any rocks that were in the way are now reduced to rubble.

"That could've gone better." Janusar said earning a subtle chuckle from his larger brother. "The ship and its pilot are useless now. We will have to continue on foot now."

Cronos looks back to see that the ship is truly done as most of the armor is stripped off with one of the engines on the verge of falling off while another isn't anywhere to be seen. As to what happened to the pilot he can easily piece it together.

He turns back to see Janusar looking at Ares and because of his psychic connection to him he can feel his thoughts like they are his own. He can feel the anger regarding Ares' fear from him but not because of the boy's himself feeling fear, it's because he blames the terran Sira for making him this way to begin with. He doesn't understand the concept completely but maybe he has a point since he can still feel Ares mourn over being seperated from her.

Janusar then reaches out and grabbed the boy's inhibitor collar, focusing his power he starts to fill the color with psionic energy causing a bit of distress to the boy. It quickly comes off with a spark as the energy overloads the collar. He throws it away to the side as leftover energy fizzle out as the now useless piece of metal lands harshly on the dirt and then his hand reaches out to the young hybrid again only for it to start patting him on the head.

"No need to be afraid anymore Ares. It is all over now, we're finally free from those wretched tarrens, we can do whatever we want now." He said in the most soothing manner that his raspy voice could make. He looks up to his zerg counterpart and looks him in the eyes. "Now let's go and find a suitable location to rest for the night. Ares clearly needs it." They both look down to see that the young boy is growing tired and is slowing his breathing so they start heading off into the wilderness to find some place to rest as they start their journey to find their own purpose in the Universe.

* * *

 **Do you know where any new reviews are? It's getting sort of quiet here.**

" **I don't know, but let us be patient about this. You're not one to write alot of reviews yourself."**

 **Good point, I just miss doing reactions to my reader's comments, makes me feel more connected with them. Speaking of reactions, this might of come way too late Adriani268** **but I'll respond anyways, it's okay, I actually had to search up on the StarCraft wiki as well just so I can set the appropriate age for Malikan. Now let's head to the fun fact of the day:**

 _ **The previous chapter for this story was by far the longest I've ever written for any story with the word count of over 5,000 words even excluding the Author note skits which is also why you may notice that this is shorter. That sort of chapter length is far from normal for me as of now.**_

 **With another chapter done I hope you all have a great day or night…(Gesturing towards him.)**

" **Wherever you are!"**

 **Nice.:) Now to solve that labeling issue with the chapters.**


	10. Chapter 9: A Close Call And A New Life

**Let me repeat this, you said that you're getting another gem, but this time from the Master?!**

" **Yep, don't worry though, I'm just gonna ask him...her...it this time." I doubt he'll will even consider giving one of his own power gems to you considering the last time we ran into him. I'm still finding trace amounts of those micro-scarabs on me every day. I think they may be breeding on me.**

" **Whatever, I'll be on my way now." Please tell him that this isn't my idea nor that I'm involved in any of this. "Will do."**

 **Okay, now that he's gone time to address my readers, Hello everyone, another chapter is out for your enjoyment. Now please excuse me as I head back into the bathroom to purge these little besties from my body because I'm starting to see a purple rash forming on my shoulder again.**

* * *

Chapter 9: A Close Call And A New Life

A lone medic treats the injured scientists and soldiers near a broken elevator shaft as the adrenaline of the protoss attack begins to wear off of them. She finishes up on one more soldier she looks around for any more patients that need help only to see them still recovering from the whole event only to also see the sleeping body of Sira near a group of scientists. She is surprised that she was able to save the white coat since she was thrown to a wall pretty hard by the hybrid that took what she suspects is Ares. In fact if the medic didn't treated her when she did the internal bleeding would've killed her, but right now the strain of what she's been through has left the brunette exhausted. She then notices a familiar ghost walking up to her and she quickly stands into attention and salutes her superior.

"At ease, Is everyone treated Maritin?" Garis asks.

"They are all treated and accounted for sir, well...what's left anyways." She responds.

"Good, now rest, you've done enough today."

"Will do, sir" The ghost walks away and the medic searches the room for a spot to rest, specifically one near a certain group of marines on a far side of the hanger.

After spotting her preferred spot she starts to approach them passing a group of idoling marines who try in vain to get her attention. As she approaches the group the marine with orange markings notices her and greets her by waving.

"Hey Sally, saved a spot for you!" The orange marine said in an almost childlike tone.

"Thanks Mike." She smiles as she sits next to her comrade. She looks at the rest to see the marine in purple, Donatellin, just sitting against the wall, looking out into space as usual. The third soldier with red markings, Tralph, however, is holding a dog tag in his hand, looking down on it with a solemn look. "I'm still sorry that I couldn't save your brother." She said in an effort to comfort the mourning soldier.

"It's fine really, I should really be mad at that overgrown bug for trampling Leon in the first place." Tralph said as anger started to fill his voice when he mentioned what she presumes is one of the two hybrids from earlier. She knows that Tralph is tough but the lost of their brother and self-proclaimed leader of their little group has hit him the hardest since he had always interacted with him even if it was in the form of arguing with each other.

Back then these marines were often the only ones that Sally would willing hang out with since she didn't always feel like they were stripping her down with their eyes. Mike never saw her a someone to have any relationships with and would rather play a game than anything else otherwise. Donatellin is often too engrossed in his own thoughts to care in the first place, Tralph has notice her as such but he never really acted on it, and Leon was the only one who ever made any advances on her but not to the point where it got creepy for her. One could even say that she took a little enjoyment out of his actions.

But now the group feels darker and almost dead with the lost of their charismatic leader.

"So what now guys, what are we gonna do now that we are in the middle of space?" The youngest of the trio asked. Their new leader sighs before answering his brother.

"I don't really know, though I feel like I'm forgetting something though." All of a sudden a loud, high pitch screech can be heard throughout the entire hanger before a deep voice came through.

"This is your new captain speaking, for all marines on the ship get to it that those engineers work on those engines on the double and for any of those noncompliant, give them some "motivation" to work. As for all the eggheads, they're dead weight."

"Oh, it was that." A look of worry spreads among the group before the medic speaks.

"Wait, what's going on here?" Tralph immediately grabs holds of her shoulders and faced her to him.

"Look, you need to listen, get out of here and bring the scientist with you now!" Without the time to ask any questions she immediately runs towards Garis and the scientists as fast as she can as the rest of the marines ready their weapons for the slaughter. "Donatellin, help her escort them! Mikey, you're with me, let's hope you're acting skills haven't rusted!"

"I should say that to you!" The youngest brother retort as their silent sibling did as ordered.

When the purple marine catched up he sees Sally trying to escort the scientists while Garis is trying to keep the marines busy. He followed the group before they made it to another lift where the last of the survivors are getting on when a volley of bullets suddenly went in their direction. Despite the bullets clearly hitting him he barely felt anything from them. He looks over to his left to see the medic healing her. He looks back to his aggressors and starts to fire on the marine that he knows isn't his brother gunning him down quickly.

"Garis, get on!" Sally yelled over the comns getting his attention. He starts running as the rest of the marines start to converge onto him. Two of the defenders get on, causing the lift to start going up as the third continues to make his way. The rouge marines start to fire at the fleeing ghost but he just dodges them letting them fly by hitting the metal wall ahead. By the time he came close to the elevator shaft the lift itself is already high above the floor, getting close to the enclosed section of the shaft.

Sparing no time he holsters his rifle and made a large leap to a side of the shaft and immediately jumps to the next spot. All the while the marines at the bottom start firing upon him barely missing him as he continues to make his way up to the others. With each leap he gets closer to the survivors while staying ahead of the gunfire but the lift is getting close to the walled off section. The group watched in anticipation as leap after leap he continues to close in without a hitch. But for Donatellin he looks behind the firing squad to see both of his brothers also joining in on the shooting no doubt missing on purpose. It was then he took notice of the ghost once again, just feet away from the lift before he took one last leap just barely making it as he catches the lift with one hand. Without hesitation he grabs hold of the ghost and pulls him up as bullets start to fly across them with some ricocheting off of his armor. Just as they are all accounted for the lift disappears into the darkness before the marines halt their firing.

Now they are on the run to survive just as they did with the protoss, but this time there are no more bridges to burn.

* * *

Within a black void a lone boy floats aimlessly with silent thoughts, curled up in a ball, vulnerable and helpless to whatever can hunt him. At first nothing is of importance, nothing but him, this void provides the peace and safety he so desires. This peace is interrupted however with an intrusion of another's voice.

"A…." This slurred voice causes the boy to wake up, his sky blue eyes finally gazing into the black void before him.

"Ar...ck" The boy can hear a little more of the voice's words as he uncurles himself but it's too intangible for him to recognize nor understand it's message or who's sending it. He looks around to find the source of the voice but he's only met with more silence in the endless abyss around him.

"Co...ack" He starts to hear more of the intelligible voice but it begins to get louder as he searches more frantically at where it is coming from.

"Ares plea...come... bac." What he can hear now is an echoing voice that surrounded him but he still can't recognize the voice causing fear to slowly engulf the confused boy as he continues to search for its source.

"Ares please come back!" He recognizes the voice's message now, and he knows it's full of fear and concern.

"Ares please come back!" That's when he finally recognizes the voice's owner: Sira. She's calling out for him and he needs to find her fast.

"Sira!" He calls out but with no reply. He calls out again and again but no response was heard. Then a low buzzing sound can be heard and it felt like it's within his head making him to start lightly grasping his head. The buzzing starts to get louder and louder until it starts to get unbearable for him making his whole being vibrate causing him to squeeze his head tightly yelling for it all to stop. The seconds tick by as his head starts to ache, he contorts his body back into a fetal position as the buzzing continues its merciless assault. But soon a voice pierces through it all:

"Wake up, brother." Just as the booming voice sounded off a light began to shine through the blackness before within seconds it consumes him, blinding the boy before a rush of familiar sensations flood into him.

When Ares woke up the first thing he sees is a rough looking ceiling before feeling a rough sensation on his skin and along his face. As his eyes clear up further he started to look around before he sees the monstrous face of a large blue creature looking down upon him. His breath begins to slow down as he begins to recognize the face before lifting himself up to further see himself in his brother's arms. He looks around to see that they are surrounded by a hard, gray material before looking up to his hulking brother.

"Where are we." Ares asks earning a deep but soft growl from his fellow hybrid.

' _A cave in a world far from where we were born. After that, I do not know.'_ Cronos answered in a low, booming voice into his mind, a voice much more soothing than that of his other brother Janusar. He now remembers, they stole a ship before they threw aside Sira to get to him, then they were pursued while before arriving at the planet and having to go through a rough landing. But he soon notices the absence of his other brother.

"Where's Janusar?"

' _He has gone to look for sustenance, though the sun provides us with nurishment, you still need flesh to grow due to your upbringing.'_ He begins to remember this as well, the lack of food for him had took its toll on him while he was on the station, he feels weak and almost exhausted due to his lack of food.

Before long he feels another presence just beyond the cave, they both look at the entrance so see Janusar just outside and on his shoulder is some sort of dead hairy four-legged creature. The hybrid approaches his kin before throwing the animal's corpse to the ground in front of him.

"Eat brother, you'll need it." Janusar spoke as Ares looks at the animal in wonder. For all his life the only other creatures he has ever seen were humans and the only thing that he had to eat were nutrition bars but even that was rare later on. Now he looks at the creature in confusion, since he has a better look at it it looks like something that Sira has described as being a creature called a dog. Up until now he has never seen on in person but now two more questions sprout up: Is it safe to eat? How does he eat it?

These questions run through his mind before seeing Cronos' outstretched hand reaching for the body. He brings it towards his face and starts to examine the creature searching around it before coming to a conclusion to just tear it apart starting with one of its legs. Another of his arms grabs hold of one of the back legs and begins to pull on it only to tear it off with ease as a sickening tear of flesh can be heard. Blood starts to trickle off from both tear openings with some getting on Ares as Cronos lowers the leg in front of him. Ares grabs the leg and when Cronos released it he can feel the weight of the leg, it's heavier than he thought but he can still hold it easily. Fresh blood still drips from the wound with a bone sticking out unnerving the kid easily but his stomach starts to ache reminding him of what he must do but how will he eat fresh, untreated meat.

' _Bite into it, like you did with the food the tarrens gave you.'_ Cronos advised demonstrating it by biting into the dog's leg, ripping it off and devouring it whole.

Ares looks back down at the leg and decided to follow his brother's example. He looks to the base of the leg as it contains the most meat, opens his mouth as wide as he can and sink his teeth into the flesh of the deceased canine's leg. A rush of blood is what he first tastes as it seeps into his mouth before he starts attempting to tear the meat away with some difficulty. Eventually the piece starts to slowly come off as he starts to put more effort into his head and arms before using his legs to gain some extra leverage until it eventually comes off, fur and all. It felt coarse on one side due to the fur and soft and squishy on the other. He begins to chew on the chunk but the stiff fur makes it uncomfortable for him to do so but not impossible as his teeth start to cut through the flesh and fur turning it into mush. He swallows the chunk whole as the mix of flesh and fur starts to run down his throat feeling a little like sandpaper along the way. He lets out a gasp as he finishes and then attempts to wipe off the blood from his mouth only to get it smeared all over his arm.

"That wasn't as bad as I thought, but the fur made it a little difficult to eat." He commented.

"Then give it to me then." Ares does as told and gives the leg to Janusar who then puts his other hand over the leg proceeds to use his power to burn the fur off as psionic energy emits from his hand. After a few seconds he holds the leg out like a crafter admiring his work to show a skinned leg with the exposed flesh's surface lightly searing. "Here." He hands the leg over to his starving brother after letting it cool for a little bit.

Ares took another bite out of it and this time it felt smoother and easier to chew than before as he saviors the more tolerable taste of the red flesh before swallowing it again. He lets his hunger take control of him as he starts to rip apart the leg like a starving animal while his brothers watch.

' _What will we do now that Ares is awake and recovering.'_ Cronos asked.

"We should start by enhancing our abilities, we can finally start harnessing our powers now that we are free, especially since the youngest of us will need it to survive alongside us." he looks to Ares again to see that he's almost done with the leg as he finishes off the little amount of flesh that remains. When he finishes the boy looks up to him with his mouth still dripping with fresh blood. "Let's go, there's a river nearby in which you can clean yourself up."

"Wait, where are we going?"

"To train as to unlock our true potential young one."

"But I just woke up minutes ago though."

"We may be free but that doesn't give excuse to us wasting time when we can grow stronger." Quickly shot downed, Ares reluctantly obeys as he follows the others as they make their way outside but as he made it to the mouth of the cave what he sees almost takes his breath away: a great field of green as far as the eye can see with a sky as blue as his eyes, it is a sight to behold for him, he just wishes that Sira is here to experience it with him, after all she was the one wanted to do so as well. He looks up into the sky, wondering if she is okay out there and hoping that one day they would meet again.

* * *

 **Man, those things may be a nuisance but the cleaning process feels like heaven, alright time to respond to some comments, and it seems that we got a new guy here as well, welcome fellow reader to the wonderful place that is this story.**

 **I've got more news on this end though, I'm currently working on a web comic that will be on Webtoons. As for when the first page of this story will come up it's still undetermined but no doubt it'll take a while so just expect more story chapters rather than that for now, I notify you about it comes out. Now onto the responses.**

 _ **Raven: Again, welcome to the club. And don't worry, this story is far from being dropped just don't expect frequent upload times because of collage, work, and all that fun stuff.**_

 _ **Consort: Nice to see you again budy, yeah took me a while to even consider putting the chapter titles in those notifications, whoopsie. As for the counter munity a small group of marines have something in planed for that beforehand. For Ares though, it'll take him some time to get over Sira, familial bonds and all.**_

 **Now for the fun fact of the day: Weather one is a night owl or an early bird is all based on genetics more than anything else. Night owls are known more to be smarter and more successful while early birds are often more kind in the morning and throughout the day. Don't let that be an excuse to stay up all night though, especially if you feel tired, it'll be really inconvenient for you in the long run. Trust me it's never fun so resist the urge to stay on that phone when you're body says that you should be sleeping.**

 **With everything said and done for today I would like you all have a great day or night wherever you- wait what was that? Where's that skittering coming from?**

 **What in the holy hell, is that a micro-scarb? It's the size of a freakin basketball how is it even like that? Nevermind, there's no time for questions now I need to kill this thing now-gahh, get off me damnit!**


	11. Chapter 10: Comfort in Conflict

**Finally another chapter for all you readers of this story out there. Sorry for the long wait but I was also working on another story: _One Punch Man: Fallen King_ which I intend on continuing alongside this story. There's also news after the chapter so stay tune because it's important in a non-negative way.**

 **"How long is it gonna take for your face to heal?" How long is it gonna take you to clean up the micro-scarab goop? "What, why?" You're the one who blew it up in the hallway so it's only fitting that you clean it. Plus it smells like a garbage field.**

 **Now let's get reading!**

* * *

Chapter 10: Comfort in Conflict

Floating a foot off the ground Malikan meditates within his own quarters, usually he would meditate in the much larger observation deck where he would be met with the vast green landscape to give him peace. But recent events involving his speech to his forces have left him quite disturbed to the point where he would rather be alone for the time being. He thought that he can find some comfort in the Kalah but even here he isn't safe from reality.

' _Do you have any faith in Malikan?_ ' A male voice asks in curiosity.

' _What is a being like him doing with being a warrior let alone an executor?_ ' A much more irritated voice makes itself known.

' _Talac'al is a better fit as an executor._ ' This statement was the final straw for the young executor as his morale starts to hit an all time low.

"Maybe they're right, I'm never going to be a great warrior like those of the past, I'm not meant to be one." At this point he doesn't care if everyone can hear his words at this point, they are true are they? Time and time again his very nature has betrayed him in the wake of conflict from their battle of Aiur where Talac'al had to save him a couple of times and the recent battle with the tarren confederates where he couldn't even inspire his own warriors. How could he ever be like his ancestors, how could he ever be like Talac'al? A year started to form in his eye at this thought rings through his head.

A loud knock from behind him startles him causing him to immediately wipe his eye before a voice comes through.

"Hey, Malikan, are you in there? If I'm I interrupting something then I can come back later." The high templar immediately recognizes it as Marcow before replying.

"No, you're not intruding on anything, come in." Malikan responded as the door opened letting the marine to quickly inspect the room.

"It's pretty cramped in here." He enters with the walls only a foot away from his shoulder pads insinuating his statement as he makes his way behind the templar.

"It's big enough to serve my needs, friend Marcow."

"Right, so how are you doing man? I heard about what happened before the attack." Malikan turns around in response to the concerned question.

"I'm well, don't threat." His tarren companion raises an eyebrow at this statement.

"It doesn't take mind reading powers to see that you're lying man." The tarren sternly said causing the young protoss droops in defeat upon hearing this and quickly accepts reality. Marcow has been an observant individual despite his light-hearted and easy going nature to the point where he could tell a blatant lie just from the slight voice change of the speaker. But Malikan's condition doesn't need to be carefully observed in order to be seen by anyone.

"You're correct in your assumption friend Marcow, I am indeed very troubled by what has recently transpired and by what I hear now within the Kalah."

"I can only imagine what your people say about you. They are blunt with their statements about others, especially about us humans."

"What my people say about me are harsh, yes. But they are true in every regard. I don't enjoy the thrill of battle nor the death of my enemies. I possess great power yet I am unwilling to use it. I'm surprised that I'm even executor for as long as I have been."

"So what? Who said being a leader was gonna be easy, you've made it here in the first place. That should say a lot about you already." The raider's voice becomes more enthusiastic in an attempt to lift his friends spirit up.

"It was through the grace of Talac'al and the promise of my abilities that led me to this point. I have barely seen any conflict personally outside the fall of Aiur and the numerous training sessions that I had if you count those as such."

"You know what? I'm gonna tell you a story about how I'm the way I am now. Get that popcorn ready because this is gonna be a doozy." Malikan becomes a little wide eyed as his only true friend sits right in front of him in preparation. "Before I became this hulk of a man you see before you I use to be a skinny kid living in the slums of a backwater colony world. In fact I was the weakest among my two other brothers and as a result I usually stay at home with my mother and father. Despite my old man's and sibling's attempts at making me stronger I had never seen the drive to actually bulk up and grow a pair. It was frustrating for them to the point where they threaten to throw me out and fend for myself."

"That's horrible, how could a family ever say that to their own flesh and blood?"

"It was a hard time for everyone, you either fight or you die out there and like an idiot I nearly chose option two but a part of me chose for me and went with option one. If it wasn't for that I would've been dead like everyone else in that hellhole. They pushed me hard to the point where I wish I was dead and just went to option two back then, but in the end I was able to tangle with the best of them, especially with the help of my brothers. We've kicked a lot of asses together, now that I think about that was the most fun I ever had before I joined the raiders when they came to visit along with the Sons of Corhal. Now I wonder how good ol Jimmy is doing right now. I bet he's being quite the pain for that snake of a man Arcturus."

"I hope so, you said that he was responsible for the tarren Sharah Kerrigan's transformation into the Queen of Blades."

"Yeah and Jim wasn't happy about that at all. Back to my side of the story, when I joined along with my brothers it was whole nother playing field for us and we were back at the bottom again. But battle after battle my brothers soon parished and it was just me. I was all alone since my brothers were the only company I wanted. If things continue as they are I would no doubt join them so I needed to change and fast. I became more sociable and battle ready and before you know it I started to lead my fellow soldiers into battle as a commander for the newly named Raynor Raiders. One thing led to another and here we are now with me telling you my awesome story of how I'm here."

"I can tell what you're trying to say friend Marcow but I lack the confidence, the crisma, and the circumstances to progress like you."

"I'm sure you'll get there, you just need more time and a little push that's all."

"Perhaps, maybe life will have something for me in the near future considering what had happened recently." The room falls into an awkward silence after this as the two just sit there in the cramped room. Marcow starts to look around trying to think of a subject to talk about to break the silence.

"Well...how about that Xel'naga temple in the forest nearby, I heard that your smithy boys got through yet another door."

"Yes, indeed, I heard it was the seventh one opened with an even more intricate locking mechanism than the previous ones." The high templar quickly replies wanting to change the subject as well. "I doubt the next lock will be easy to open either."

"Jeez, what are these Xel'naga guys have in there, a lifetime supply of beer or something?"

"So far no symbols have stated the identity of what lies within. Knowing the ancient beings it could be something extremely powerful if so many barriers were put to contain it. It may also be that they're testing our resolve to seek whatever resides in the temple since we have discovered that the Xel'naga were expecting us to access it even after all this time."

"This whole ancient alien society stuff is so weird sometimes."

"The Xel'naga work in mysterious ways friend Marcow, even I do not know the full extent of their lessons." His companion stands up and stretches a little with him getting up alongside them.

"Well then I hope that it's at least the galaxy's best massage chair because my back is aching like a bitch." Malikan chuckles at this remark. The tarren always seem to find a way to brighten up the atmosphere even if things are bad for him. "Well I better get back now, I'm gonna start keeping my own people waiting for long at this rate." The Raiders commander walks to the door before stopping to look back at him with a warm smile. "Just hang in there buddy, you'll get your chance in the spotlight, I can feel it." The door closes as the marine's footsteps start to fade away leaving the young protoss with his thoughts once again.

"Let's hope you're right friend Marcow." He goes back to meditating once again as he now contemplates the tarren's words.

* * *

Within the darken halls of the _Sanctum_ scared survivors stay silent in a storage room as their hunters track them down, among them is Garis who is watching the door, listening for any footsteps that would give their pursuers away. Within the back a small group of surviving scientists and a couple of engineers hide behind two piles of crates all terrified at what they just experienced with some even pacing around attempting dispel their fear. Among them is a lone medic healing the last of the survivors from their gunshot wounds. She finishes them up before they rejoin their colleagues among the crates as she scans the rest of them in case she missed any. This didn't take long since there is little left of the scientists that came on board after the initial massacre Marco's marines have committed. She then looks over behind her to see the scientist named Sira sitting alone against a crate with her head buried in her legs out of complete fear. But right now she needs to report to Garis of her task as he is now the highest ranking individual in the room. She approaches the ghost as quietly as her armor could as to avoid catching any unwanted attention though he would already know of her approach as he turns to her.

"All of the remaining survivors are treated and accounted for, sir" Sally spoke as quietly as possible.

"Good, what about Sira?" Garis replies as he moves away from the door.

"Shaken but alive, sir." Garis feels a small sense of relief at this news, they've already lost enough as it is with Daniels considered KIA and the entire station destroyed. The last thing they want is to have the last leading scientist dead as well.

"Then go and rest then, we need everyone in optimal health in our current condition." The blonde medic nods and walks back towards the back of the room with the others. She turns to her left and sees Donatellin also alone in the far croner working on some sort of device with some tools.

She sits to the right of him against the wall and sighed in exhaustion from her second round of close calls. She looks over to watch the silent marine continue to work on his little project which is a makeshift bomb that the brothers are planning to use on Macro when they are close enough to them that they also discussed with Garis which was easy because of his psychic ability countering the marine's lack of a voice. She is surprised that he can work despite working with such bulky armor, it's probably because all that practice over the years on the station.

However, she is worried for Mike and Tralph's safety however as she doesn't know how long they can fool the others and she doesn't want to think about what will happen to them. She looks to the ground in despair at the mere thought of them getting hurt only to feel a weight on her shoulder. The medic jolts up to see Donatellin's hand on it with him looking at her with a comforting smile as if to say "They'll be fine". He then quickly goes back to working on the bomb as if nothing happened.

The marine may not be able to talk but due to his injury that he got growing up but his actions speak for themselves and they both know it. But for now all they can do is wait and hope that they are not found.

* * *

 **Yeah I know that this doesn't feature our hybrid trio but this chapter is just continuing setting up these two side stories so they arn't forgotten so quickly.**

 **For the news that I stated earlier it's essentially a weekly update on every weeking or Monday since collage is currently out making me only worry about work which gives me more time to work on each chapter. As to which stories will get updated it really depends on which idea comes first but if I'm really lucky I can post both of them back-to-back.**

 **Now for the trivia of the day:**

 _ **Fusion energy is the process of creating electricity from the heat generated from nucular fusion rather than fission. It's extremly powerful and a clean source of energy at the same time which means that once it's possible all other options including nucular energy would be obsolete. The current problem is that it's really difficult if not impossible to use since one would need to replecate the condition of the Sun in order to actually make it happen. But when the time comes alot of positive changes will occur that are too much for this chapter to hold so I'll end it here.**_

 **That was a mouthfull now with review responses:**

 ** _Consort_ : The Koprulu sector is not known to be merciful to anyone so while they are alone our mary group of hybrids will indeed need to grow stronger as quickly as possible.**

 _ **Desk**_ **Vampire: I thought it would be fitting for each hybrid to be one of each species considering the story subject. Also that zerg ability sounds interesting but you're gonna have to wait to find out.**

 **"You better not cause any trouble for us blood sucker!" Sorry for my friend's comment, let's just say that we had a bad time with some crazy vampires during our adventure together.**

 **Now with all that said and done I hope you all have a great day or night wherever you may be!**


	12. Chapter 11: Conflict in Comfort

**Let's see, who's how's next week gonna be for work…**

 ***Crash!* The hell?**

" **Oi, what's up."**

 **What in the dimensions happened to you? You look like you've been in a 7-year long war.**

" **To put a long story short I visited the DWMA, fought Black Star again, then a rival with the same dimensional traveling abilities as me dragged me through the dimensional tunnels into an ongoing battle between the protoss and zerg where I nearly got killed by both sides more times than I can count. Oh and I believe that I was able to kick my rival into the hell dimension."**

 **Well they're gonna have a very 'good' time there. But** **I've never seen this rival of yours though.**

 **"He arrived shortly after I returned you here last time. He's more annoying than anything."**

 **Okaaaaaaay, well I'm just gonna get this chapter started.**

* * *

Chapter 11: Conflict in Comfort

Within a clearing of the quiet forest Ares sits on in the center with his brother Janusar watching him, in front of him is a head size rock lying on the ground. It's beaten up from the numerous times it has been thrown at the tree in front of them for the past three hours which is also bearing scares of its own though minor by comparison. The rock suddenly begins to shake a little before floating up into the air only to stop in front of his head. With a squint the boy sends it flying towards the tree at great speeds only for it to ricochet to the side with only a small chunk of the rock coming off with an even smaller chunk coming off the tree. The young hybrid groans in frustration as he kneels to the ground and grips the grass.

"Patience young one, such power requires great concentration to even be considered as a weapon." Janusar reassured as he brings the rock back with his own powers and drops it in front of the boy. "Now concentrate, leave your emotions behind and focus on manipulating the rock and bring that tree to the ground."

Ares stands back up, closes his eyes, and begins to once again lift the rock off the ground as ordered from his older sibling bringing it up to his face. Just as he was about to launch it through the air however an image of Sira flashes in his sight, sending a piercing ache throughout his entire head causing him to drop the rock and kneel to the ground clutching his head in pain.

"Ares!" The protoss-like hybrid immediately rushes to his brother's aid, putting a hand on his back and another on his head as he gives a concerned look. He replays the events again in his own mind and sees that the thought of that tarren has caused him to lose focus, this is getting annoying for the hybrid, such thoughts will no doubt impede his progress greatly if not dealt with. He sees his brother starting to recover from the experience and helps him up. "I told you to leave your emotion behind Ares."

"But Sira..." He says, as a tear starts to roll down his eyes showing that he's on the verge of breaking.

"She's gone Ares, there's no way you can meet her again."

"Because you took me away from her!" The sudden response startles Janusar as he stares in his brother's now tear filled eyes. "We could've taken her with us, she would've been safe here with us and not left with those things that tried to kill us!" He continues his outburst growing more unstable with each passing second. "It's because of both of you that I can't see her again!" He suddenly runs to the other direction but Janusar catches him buy the collar of his shirt and lifted him up into the air causing him to thrash around in the air.

"Don't be selfish Ares!"

"Let me go!" A small aura of psychic energy starts to form around the child little by little as he continues to try to free himself from his siblings's grasp. Janusar immediately takes notice of this and tries to reach out for his brother's head as to quell his emotions. But before he could reach him he feels an intense burning pain followed by a powerful force pushing his hand away. He feels the same sensation in his other arm seconds after causing him to let go in great pain.

"Ares, please calm down!" His fear-filled plea falls upon deaf ears as his aura begins to grow more violently with sparks flaring sporadically leaving behind small scorch trails in their wake. All the hybrid can do now is watch helplessly as his siblings's power begins to reflect the anger inside him.

The field continues to grow incinerating the grass leaving only burnt dirt behind and causing him to move back to avoid its effects. The energy stops growing just as it reached half of the clearling's diameter. It suddenly collapses on itself and back into Ares before the young hybrid lets out a pain-filled scream as he releases all the pent up energy which incinerates all the greenery within and just beyond the clearing. Janusar focuses all of his energy on his barrier before the energy could reach him causing the power field to push him back many meters away.

As the smoke fades and the ringing in his ears fade Janusar looks up to see what his brother has done and what he beholds makes his eyes grow wide. The once lush green field of the forest was turned into a shallow, smoldering crater of charred dirt and at its center is Ares panting heavily on the ground.

The boy makes eye contact with his older brother but he instantly sits back up and starts to back away in fear as Janusar starts to get up. Tears start to swell back up in his eyes before he stands up and starts running away and into the trees.

"Ares, please wait!" The protoss hybrid outstretches his arm as he watches his brother disappear into the trees ahead. He gets back up while putting more effort into keeping himself up then he should. All of his hearts are all pumping on all cylinders as reality continues to settle in. "Chronos!"

"Already on my way brother." Chronos responds through their telepathy. He was originally sent out to scout out the area for any potential threats but he witnessed the situation through their link and is already taking action. It's going to take him a little while for him to reach their frightened sibling judging from where he is now.

' _What have I done?'_ All Janusar can do now is to recover his energy and hopefully set off to retrieve Ares soon as well.

* * *

In a small house just on the edge of the main town, a fair skin girl late into her teens with long, messy, dirty blonde hair lays on a couch staring at the T.V. with her hazel green eyes, skipping through the channels with a board expression on her face. She wears short jeans and dark green shirt along with a couple of piercings on her left ear. She yawns as she goes through a second round through the programs trying to find anything that could entertain her. Finally having it she sits up and stretches he arms and legs out letting out a satisfied groan at the end before slumping over.

"Awww, there's nothing interesting to watch." The girl complained.

"Then how about you help me cook then?" A male voice calls out in response from the kitchen behind her.

She turns around to see a tall guy with short, black, scruffy hair, brown eyes, and a light fuzz as his facial hair who is wearing an apron on top of his belted jeans and white tank top. He is currently cooking their lunch which she knows is consisting of the usual ham and grilled cheese sandwich.

"Fine, at least I'll learn something useful out of this." She gets up from her soft resting spot with her hands behind her head.

"There's the optimism." The girl playfully rolls her eyes at his remark as she eventually makes her way towards the kitchen to help.

"Alright what can I d-" All of a sudden a sharp pain erupts in her head causing her to hold her head and fall to the ground into a fetal position which causes an immediate response out of the man.

"Isabel, what's wrong?" He asks as the girl starts shake with her eyes closed shut.

She quickly starts to scream as the pain gets worse and a buzzing noise starts to form within her head. She keeps screaming almost spazzing out in response to the ever growing pain enveloping her mind. The door next to the kitchen bursts open as a woman with long, red, tied up hair and in an engineering outfit comes in with a concerned look on her face.

"What's going on here?" She asks before rushing towards the screaming Isabel.

"I don't know, she just fell to the floor and started screaming. I don't know what caused it." He starts to cradle the suffering girl in his arms while the woman watches.

"I'm going to get the pills." The man nods as the woman runs towards the living room and up the stairs to get her medican.

Meanwhile in the girl's mind the buzzing has turned into a constant ringing all around her while a person's scream echoes along with it. She starts sweating as she digs her nails into her head and screams even louder causing her voice to crackle with each round.

"MAKE IT STOP, MAKE IT STOP, MAKE IT STOOOOP!" Tears start to roll down her face as she starts to thrash uncontrollably while the man tries to regain control.

The woman suddenly comes back down with a bottle of pills and a glass of water and quickly runs beside the two before kneeling down. She opens the bottle and pours two white pills out into her hand.

"Alright Isabel, I need you to gulp this down, I got some water for you." The girl opens her eyes slightly to see the pills in her hand in front of her.

She suppresses her screams as she opens her mouth to let her be fed the pills before she drinks the water given to her. The pain in her head starts to subside and the screaming begins to fade away causing her to go limp from the immense pain she just endured. The two parents just sat there and watched the now unconscious girl sleeping in the man's arms in silence.

"Oh god, poor Isabel."

"We need to bring her to immediately."

"I'll get the car ready." The redhead runs towards the garage while the man picks the unconscious blonde up and follows his partner out.

* * *

 **Wow talk about emotional. By the way you know about that rival of yours?**

" **Yeah, what about him?"**

 **I believe I just received a couple death threats from him.**

" **Wait what?"**

 **This screen here.**

" **That picture is definitely him, he says for me to meet him in Titan's realm and see who is strongest or else he'll kill you specifically."**

 **You gotta be kidding me. |^{**

" **You tell me, this is the fifth time this month, and now he brings you into this. Hold my energy drink because I'm really gonna give this guy a piece of my mind now."**

 **Ignoring the fact that you drink energy drinks now, onto the daily trivia.**

 _ **A shrimp's heart is located in their head, but to be precise it's really located near where the head and the thorax meet which is covered by one large exoskeleton piece making it look like the heart is in the head.**_

 **I hope that doesn't ruined you time eating shri-holy crap that's a big gun!**

" **That's what she said."**

 **Of course (-** **_** **-).**

 **"I'm talking about a friend, and fellow dimensional hopper of mine, who also first saw this gun. Get you head out of the gutter ;)."**

 **How many of you hoppers are out there?**

" **Infinite, maybe, if we go by human's logic of multidimensional theory anyway."**

 **Joy.**

" **Now before I set off to kick this guy's ass I hope you all have a great day or night wherever you are."**

 **And thanks for reading this chapter, now I hope you have fun with that fight man.**

" **I have fun even when I'm mad."**

 **Ok, now take out this guy before he comes after me.**

 **"Got it!"**


	13. Chapter 12: Inner Turmoil

**Wow, I'm sorry for the late upload for all you readers out there, :{ the combined power of procrastination, working on drawing my webcomic, and regular work have diverted a good portion of my time away from this story. Don't worry though at the very least I can get the first of the list out of my system now.**

 **With the apology set lets get reading!**

" **AHH!"**

 **What the he-*KABAM!***

* * *

Chapter 12: Inner Turmoil

Everything is spinning everyware for Ares as he runs through the trees from his brother, fear coursing through every fiber of his being. He doesn't know where to go or what to do besides running as a flurry of emotions ravage his mind and tears cloud his vision.

He pushes away from tree to tree moments after colliding with them tumbling around with each impact earning even more torn cloth and dark bruises on top of his already existing wounds. His legs suddenly trample through some bushes which taer what was left of the pants of his lower legs and gave him much more bloody cuts with their wooden blades with some having chips lodged in them. The boy pays no mind to the stinging pain as he continues to run through the green foliage.

Through the shadowed tunnel he sees a light at the end and with nowhere else to go he follows it to its source. Despite crashing into more trees and bushes his legs continue to carry the child at full speed towards what he suspects is the sun.

The moment he reaches the forest's edge however his foot catches onto something making him trip into the air and into the light. Everything slowed as he enters the light and as the brightness began to fade he was met, to his horror, a large rocky cliffside below him before everything speed back up. His arms instinctively rise up to shield his face as gravity pulls him down to the rocks below before smashing him into it. He tumbles down as his body continually crashes against the surface inflicting what are now deeper gashes into his body wherever the impacts are made.

This all happened for almost a minute before he reaches the cliff's end and into flatten ground. All bloodied and bruised Ares tries to get back up but his numerous injuries prohibit him from doing so as his arms shake and his body quickly returns to the ground. He tries again but his body just can't muster up the strength to do so.

"Chronos...Janusar!" Ares cries out as tears started to run down his face. Again he tries to lift himself but his fragile frame again gives in to the damage. He starts to hold back his wailing as he begins to realize the situation he is in.

' _Why? Why did I do that?'_ His mind races as it tries to compose his thoughts through the raging storm of emotions. ' _I didn't mean to hurt him, I didn't want to, so why did I?'_ His grip on his sadness begins to waver as the thoughts continue. ' _I j-just miss her, I thought that we w-were going to take her with u-us.'_ His control starts to hang by a string as even his thoughts grow unstable. ' _But w-we d-didn't and n-now she's out t-there alone, I might n-not e-even see h-her a-a-agian!'_ His emotions break through and the young hybrid begins to let out a heartbreaking cry that is heard only by the wildlife alone. Whatever thoughts remained in his mind are now drowned out in a sea of emotions as he continues to cry out in a mix of overwhelming sadness and pain.

For a few minutes, he remained in this helpless state until a light thud was heard in front of him which makes him cease his cries and look up despite the pain it brings. What is within his sight is a small blue and white creature about the size of his head lying lifelessly on the ground near him before it started to thrash around frantically. It front limbs flapping rapidly as it fails to gain a footing before giving off a series of chirps as if to call for help. He reaches out for the helpless creature and gently grabs hold of its body causing it to move more sporadically and chirp louder than before causing him to retract his arm.

He quickly notices that his arm is mostly healed leaving only dried blood, dirt, and some smaller wounds left on the surface, he must've not noticed this while he was crying. Though his body still aches he gets back up and wipes the tears from his eyes before looking at the fleaing creature again now noticing that one of its strange forelimbs is limp and just flopping on the ground keeping it from what it thinks is flying. The creature remains Ares of something, something he heard about back at the station that Sira told him about, but he just can't remember what.

Whatever it is it's hurt and clearly afraid, much like him, so he crawls towards the struggling animal and gently scoops it up into his hands, he then sits down with his legs crossed before examining the creature.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you." He tries to reassure the little creature which to his surprise does calm down with only his chest inflating up and down rapidly.

He looks into the black beady eyes of the creature as it continues to examine its surroundings with jerky head movements as he makes his way down its body to see a solid yellow line running all the down its back and all the way to what looks like a tail. He rotates the animal keeping his thumbs pressed lightly against it as to keep it from running away and notices the broken limb once again. He feels bad for the little thing, not being able to move without feeling great pain, he knows the feeling all too now wonders how it even got such an injury in the first place.

He suddenly hears some rustling among the trees and a larger creature leaps out towards him but he dodges to the side, barely avoiding it my mere inches. Once he gains a footing he quickly examine the creature and sees that it's on four legs, is about the length of his body and legs combined and is covered in dark green scales that give off a metallic glare. Its head is elongated and contains dark yellow eyes and has a long tail that slithers behind it like it has a will of its own.

The injured animal starts to thrash around in fear once again as Ares backs away from the creature while it moves towards him, its long black claws digging into the ground with each step, and its forked tongue slipping in and out of the creature's long jaws. The eyes stare him down with a murderous gaze as the creature opens its mouth letting out a hiss and revealing a tooth filled maw that can easily tear his flesh from bone if it got a hold.

The young boy can only stare and continue to move away from the predator with the still panicking avian, knowing that he has no chance against it when it attacks.

And soon enough the creature prepares for another strike against him as it pulls itself back in preparation for another leap, jaws wide open with saliva dripping down from the top jaw, to the lower on, and onto the grassy floor. He turns his shoulder towards the creature shielding the one in his hands and closing his eyes tightly in anticipation. He hears it leap up towards him and prepares for the incoming attack only to hear a heavy thud alongside an almost thunderous one a second later.

He slowly opens his eyes to see the predator's jaws right in front of legs, snapping at him in a failing attempt to catch him. The next thing he notices is the familiar sight of his brother, Cronos, with a firm grip on its tail. The hulking hybrid lifts it up effortlessly as the scale covered predator stats to lash out at the elder brother with any contact made causing no damage to his carapace.

Ares only watched as his brother growled at the creature as he raised another hand and with one swift strike decapitated its head clean off with blood still falling alongside the head. Cronos throws the corpse aside and direct his attention towards his younger sibling as he started to approach his smaller brother who just stood still, conflicted on whether he should stay or flee.

"Ares..." Cronos spoke, the low and animalistic voice intimidating the young boy instead of comforting him. Ares just stares at the ground unwilling to look his brother in the eye out of fear of his anger.

He was prepared to be yelled at as he hurt one of his brothers, ran away from them, and caused unnecessary for them all. He deserves such treatment in every regard.

He was shocked when he felt himself against his rough body and sees that his brother is kneeling with his arms are wrapped around the small hybrid.

"I'm so grateful that you're safe Ares." Confusion sets in, why isn't he yelling at him? Isn't he mad that he had caused so much trouble?

"But, aren't you mad at me?"

"We are not happy about your behavior, yes, but we are not angered by your actions. We can sense your anguish over your separation of Sira and fully understand it, but you cannot act like this, especially in a universe that we do not understand." Ares looks down with a guilty look in response to this but his brother lifts his chin up with a tendral. "But we can learn and improve, that is what our freedom brings. Now let's go, our brother is waiting."

"But isn't he also mad?"

"You should know, he is more mad at himself than at you."

"But I can't hear either of you, I don't know why."

"Perhaps your emotions have sever your connections with us temporarily, I could only follow but not speak when I was finding you. The only thing that I could sense were the negative feelings that were raging in your mind. Perhaps we should suspend your training until you can recompose yourself."

"Wait, but I want to become stronger, I want to protect myself and you all from what attacked us at the space station!"

"And you will, but your abilities require your mind to be clear in order to develop. Now let's go, you look horrible." He looks down to his hands, now noticing the creature in them. Ares uncouple his hands to reveal the still injured animal lying peacefully in his arms, almost sleeping as it slowly searches around. "We can't bring that though, you should either release it or consume it."

He looks down at the creature, now unsure what to do with it, he doesn't want to release it since its injuries will get it killed. He also doesn't have the stomach to even kill it. Yet another part wishes to help it but he doesn't know how. He ultimately decided for the latter option and close his eyes and cradle it up again, hoping to end its life quickly.

But he hesitates, he doesn't want to kill this beautiful creature, it never did anything wrong and it's hurt which is something that he just can't ignore. His hands began to shake as he continues to hesitate.

' _Just do it, put it out of its misery, it would want that.'_ He tries to convince himself but his hands don't respond. ' _Do it please! Do what it wants!'_ His breath begins to quicken before his hands start to slowly squeeze until he got a firm grip around its body. The creature doesn't respond, completely unaware of its encroaching fate.

He holds his breath and prepares to snap it neck with on quick move. There's no way he can help it.

"Wait!"

His eyes jolt open and his hands freeze upon hearing his siblings's call and looks at him with a confused look.

"Look." Ares looks down to look at the creature, at first he saw nothing different, but when he examines it further he sees that the broken limb is completely healed with it tucked back to the body.

"How did it…?"

"This is your doing brother, you're growing, what do you wish to do with it now?" Without waiting he turns around, outstretched his arms out, and begins to pull his hands apart before stopping halfway. Sky blue eyes stare into shiny black orbs as he admires the blue creature on last time, he's sort of reluctant to set it free, but he knows what's best for it. His hands fully open and the creature stretches out its forelimbs revealing a mesmerizing white pattern before flying off into the sky and into the trees.

It was at that moment when he remembers what it is now, a bird, Sira said that there are many like it from the ones with big talons to small ones like what he saved. He smiles at the sight before turning back to his brother.

"Now, let's go." Ares let his sibling wrap two of his tendrils around him and lift him up unto his back where he is then safely fasten with the two remaining tendrils and starts to make his way to the cliff face.

The boy looks back and hopes that the bird will be fine, but now he also hopes for Sira to be as well.

* * *

Sally stares into the ceiling as she starts to tap her fingers on the metal floor growing impatient as her friend, Donatellin, continues to work on the bomb which he's been working on for an hour straight. She wonders how long it takes to actually build such a device, she's not much of an engineer but is it that hard to build something that explodes?

She quickly notices her companions lack of movement and looks over to see him staring at her with an annoyed expression.

"What?" Sally asked. He responds by pointing to her hand on the ground. "Oh." Quickly getting the point she stops and looks to the floor again before getting up. "I'll just...check on the others." She starts to move towards to numerous scientists on the crates to see how they are doing.

As she looks around she sees that the survivors have calmed down a little as the ones who were pacing around are now either just standing up or sitting with the rest and are finally keeping quiet. She's just glad that she can get some peace and quiet in this chaotic ship and help her think. Speaking of thinking there's one scientist among them that she is particularly worried about: Sira.

The medic searched for her eventually finding her in the same spot in a corner of the room. Ever since they got here she had isolated herself from everyone else and never even bothered to move an inch from her current position and she knows why. It was no secret that her and the hybrid named Ares had a connection and she even overheard some marines planning to use him as a hostage at some point. She can't imagine the turmoil that's going on in her mind, but she does know that she has to help, as a medic she must help anyone in need.

She approaches the lone scientist thinking about what she should say to her, but considering the current climate anything could set her off, it's gonna be like walking into a minefield. She quickly finds herself in front of her and with a deep breath she sits next to the grieving tarren.

"Hey there, are you alright?" Sira remains unresponsive which makes the blonde to sit next to her. "If you have anything to vent out you can talk to me." Though they hadn't talked much in the past they are on friendly terms with each other.

"I..."

A faint answer was given out before she continued.

"I just...miss him so much." Tears start to come out as she tries to hold back her cries.

"Yeah, I may not have known him so much, but I can tell that he's a good kid." She sees the scientist start to slowly break, she needs to do something before she accidentally reveals them all. "But I'm sure we'll find him, I mean I know it doesn't look like it but I bet a signal was sent out before this whole thing went down so help's gonna arrive." This makes Sira stop crying but now she preeks over her legs with a slight glare.

"But will it come in time?"

"I-I'm sure it will." The scientist seems unconvinced and starts to tear up again but only lets out heavy breathing this time. The two just sit there now with the burnett's constrained breathing being the only sound in their area.

* * *

" **Well, he's gonna be out for a while, I'm surprised that he's still alive :/. So let's see, hmm it seems that he got the rest of the a/n out, time to type it in then."**

 _ **Consort: With Ares being so young his lack of control over his emotions will indeed present a persistent problem in one way or another. That is, until he can get a full hold on himself.**_

 **The trivia of the day is:**

 **There's a game called** _ **CodinGame**_ **which encourages you to use actual computer scripts like JavaScript and C++ coding in order to progress through the levels. (** **blog/fun-video-games-facts-to-sound-like-expert (Seriously what's the deal with these links? Can anyone tell me?)** **)**

" **Alright now everyone, since I gave this guy a concussion by using my body as a projectile, I'm gonna stay him to watch over him. As to how that happen, let's just say I got on the wrong side of a wurm's tail."**

 **Meeeh...meheh...meeeh.**

" **So that's the sound of him sleeping, weird. Well you all have a great day or night wherever you may be peeps. I'm going to tuck this guy into bed now."**


	14. Chapter 13: Medical Evasion

**Hey peeps, sorry for the delay, I've learned the hard way that I can't post new chapters on the phone, so while in D.C. with my mom I continued to work on the next chapter so expect it to be ready tomorrow.** **If anyone has any ideas on how I can post on a phone that I somehow missed then go ahead and give your solution. If not then don't worry about it.**

 **Now let's turn back time and see how I was last week.**

 ***Cool time traveling sounds***

* * *

 _ **1 Week Earlier**_

 **Oh my god, I feel like crap!**

 **"What happened?"**

 **Shit happen, that's what. We missed our first flight to D.C. because we were too late by 8 minutes to check our bags in at 11pm, then I only had under 5 hours of sleep in order to get on a standby the next day, and I barely had anything to eat up until now. Is that good enough for ya you ****?**

 **"Whoa, I can see that you're really grumpy right now. I'll just let you be til' tomorrow."**

 **Thanks you ****. But my ***damn head still hurts from what happened before.**

 **"Yeah, I'm still sorry about that."**

 **And seriously where are these ****ing bleeps coming from!?**

 _ **'I must've forgotten to turn off my automatic bleeper, whoops.'**_

* * *

Chapter 13: Medical Evasion

A panic filled redhead drives quickly through the forest trail, the tires rustling up the dirt of the uneven path. Meanwhile, her partner sits in the backseat, holding an unconscious Isabel in one arm while the other he holds a phone.

"We're on our way right now…mhm...alright thank you." The man said before putting away his phone and fully embracing his child. "She said she'll be waiting." The car jolts to the left into a wider trail that looks more paved out.

"Good, we can always depend on her." The woman said as she continues to drive down the path at the highest speed possible. She knows that the girl's a telepath but this sort of thing has never happened in her entire life, not even when large groups of people were around her without knowledge which is where she would receive the most thoughts from everyone. At worst it was just an annoyance for her.

She sees the settlement ahead and starts to decelerate a little as to keep a better control of the car by the time she enters it. Though she slows down just enough to do so she is still going quite fast as she speeds past bystanders of the outer farms who just watch in confusion. In seconds she's in the settlement, going down the only road it has that bisects the whole thing and right towards the science facility that is on the other end of it. Despite the distance of the building she quickly arrives and immediately stops in front of it prompting the man to start getting out alongside the woman with Isabel still in his arms.

They were stopped when two dominion marines walk into their path using their imposing as a barrier.

"Halt, you're not allowed inside without proper authorization. Return to your home immediately." One of the marines states.

"Please let us through, my daughter is sick and she needs medical treatment now!" The man pleads in hopes of getting through to the guards.

"That doesn't change a thing, now get back to your vehicle or things are going to get ugly." The worried pair just stare the guards down in response to this, disgusted by the typical behavior of the Dominion, but they aren't going to back down. But before the tension could snap a third party interveners.

"I do believe that they have proper authorization." The whole group turned to see a brunette wearing glasses, a lab coat, and with her hair tied in a bun, standing behind them all. "I have seen this before, it is a rare genetic disease that I've seen and treated with the father. It's a condition in which the patient is randomly put into a comatose state regardless of their age nor health and it's best treated as quickly as possible." The marines look back to the family and then to the scientist again as if unsure about what she just said.

"Uhh, do you have any science stuff to do?" The second marine asks.

"As a matter of fact, my schedule is clean at this hour, now let them through."

"Alright then, you three are clear to pass." They move aside letting the civilians through and follow the scientist inside.

It wasn't until they were all well inside that they broke the silence between each other.

"Thanks for the save Ariel, we owe you one."

"No worries Isaac, anything to help you and Isabel out. Good thing that they don't know anything about actual science." Isaac smiles at this as they continue down the pristine hallways passing some scientists that look in confusion. The two have been good friends for quite some time even before this settlement was created, and though he couldn't understand the genetic stuff that she usually talks about, that hasn't stopped them from hanging out then. But things were different then.

It also helps that she's the only other person that knows of Isabel's psionic abilities, he's already lost one child to it by the Confederacy, he isn't going to lose his daughter to the Dominion as well.

It took a few minutes for them to navigate to what looks like a distant and isolated room near the back of the building. When Ariel opened the door for them it reveals a room that has a table at its center with numerous desks and computers surrounding it which gives everyone but the scientist an uncomfortable vibe.

"Don't worry, nothing in here hurts." Despite this reinsurance they still have their worries. "Alright, now put her on that table, I'll get everything ready." She heads to a nearby terminal while the two did as they were told and gently put the blonde onto the table. They then watch as their friend navigates the computer until she comes upon the image of a holographic human head and four line representing vitals.

She then gets up and heads towards another desk where she picks up what looks like a metal head bracing connected to numerous wire that are also connected to the activated monitor. She fits it on the girl's head despite her messy hair and walks back towards the computer, she then starts the scanning procedure and the screen starts to flare with activity. The worried couple stay close to each other and their daughter as they all watch the screen in anticipation.

A minute that felt like an hour to the parents has gone by before Ariel got up with an audible sigh while looking more relaxed than before.

"Is she going to be okay?" The woman asked on behalf of her husband.

"Don't worry May, she'll be fine." They both sigh in great relief. "The scans show that nothing had changed in her brain and it is currently in REM sleep. She'll wake in about an hour or so. But may I ask you a question?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"How long ago did you say this happened."

"I think at around ten minutes or so ago, why?"

"Well I've heard that our scanners picked up a spike of psionic energy within the forests towards the south around that time. It was almost a class 7 signature, and due to that a small Dominion task force is being mobilized to investigate it." They look at each other in confusion before she continued. "So from I've gathered from all of this, your daughter must've picked up on this and with such a large amount of energy entering her mind in such a short timespan overwhelmed her causing the trauma that she endured."

"So what caused it then?" The father asked.

"That's the kicker, we don't have a clue as to what caused such a phenomenon in the first place. That's why I'm going to ask that she stays here until she wakes up."

"Wait, why?" The two were caught off guard by this request.

"I'm getting to that, it's because since she was the one who has experience this event firsthand, her accounts should provide me with an idea as to the possible cause of the surge." They look down at Isabel, reluctant to fulfill their friends request. "You can stay with her if you want." They ponder her request for some time before coming to a conclusion.

"I'll stay with her." Isaac said, trying to put up a strong front.

"Me too." May grabs his hand for her support and for his.

"Alright then, can I get you anything while I'm out?" They both shake their heads allowing the scientist to walk out to leave the family in silence.

* * *

 **One hour later**

Within the room Isaac sits to the side of the still unconscious Isabel, who has a blanket covering her from the neck down, with an arm wrapped around May as she leans against his shoulder. So far neither of them have spoken to each other since Ariel left to continue some of her other work, but in Isaac's mind thoughts runs amok.

 _'She said that she's going to be fine, alright? She said that she's going to be fine.'_ Despite the numerous times that he had repeated this there's still a lingering doubt the just won't disappear from his subconscious. He had never experienced this sort of thing in his entire life and he feels helpless to actually aid his daughter as he can only sit and wait for her to wake up in god knows when.

It was then he started to notice some sound coming from the table, he quickly looks up as his wife follow suite only to see that Isabel is rustling in the table murmuring incoherent words. They both go to the sides of the girl as she continues to ruffle up the table in an ever increasing frantic manner. It was when she started to breath heavily and start to move as if to fend off something that her words start to come through.

"Mo...mot…" She starts to swing frantically and the father intervenes, trying to restrain her arms to keep her from hurting them and herself.

"Isabel, wake up!" Isaac said in an attempt to snap her out of her nightmare. "It's me, you father, please wake up!" His pleas fall on deft ears as she continues to thrash around sporadically.

"Moth...mother..." For a few seconds she continues to sweat and panic as her visions torment her endlessly. "Mother!" She jolts awake in a cold sweat with her eyes growing wide and her pupils shrinking to a pebble sized dot. "Mother." She repeated one last time before slowing her breathing and looking over to her left promoting him to release her. "Father." Tears start to swell up as she lunges to embrace him tightly in which he returns the hug.

"Everything's alright Isabel, I'm right her." Tears start to roll down his daughter's face as she holds back her cries.

Meanwhile May just watches the two have their moment together, she looks down as she gets an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach. It's times like these where she feels like she doesn't fit in with them. She's just an outsider who had integrated herself into a broken family through the shared memory of the girl's mother. The redhead looks back up to figure out that the two are looking at her with Isabel wiping her tears away.

"May." The blonde opens her arms inviting her in for a hug while giving off a small but warm smile. Though reluctantly, she accepts the invitation and comes in to hug her only for the door to open as Dr. Hanson enters.

"Oh, am I interrupting something." Ariel froze as she realized what she stumbled into and tries to back up only for May to stop her.

"No, no, it's okay." May responds as she rubs the back of her own head in response to the awkward silence.

"Ok then, well it looks like I came it at the right time anyway. How are you feeling Isabel?" She leans in bringing a sweet tone to her words.

"I'm good miss Ariel, though I'm now having a splitting headache." Her fingers rub against her temples as to accentuate her statement.

"I'll get you something for that, but first I need you to answer some questions for me really quick alright?"

"Uhh, okay, ask away."

"I want you to remember now, did you hear anything when you experienced the event that put here in the first place."

"Alright I'll try." She tries to remember what has happened but no matter how hard she tries nothing comes through. "Sorry, nothing's up there, I think that my head hurts even more now." Her father comes to her aid as she starts to get off the table.

"Alright then, I'll get some medication that will deal with the headache, but if you remember anything you're free to tell me or your parents."

"Thanks miss Ariel." The scientist leaves once again as the family begins to recover from their experience.

* * *

 **Alright, I feel a whole lot better now that I've finally got some good sleep.**

 **"Good, so what now?"**

 **Well I'm going to have some fun in D.C. now.**

 **"Alright then, but should you do something first though?"**

 **Oh right, trivia uhhhh…**

 _ **Trivia of the day:**_

 _ **You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV. (You know what, I'm not even gonna bother with a link, they always end up weird.)**_

 **Well I think I know what I should do less because I'm a skinny boy.**

 **"Weren't you tired just yesterday?"**

 **It was a joke, don't worry. ;) Now thanks for reading my audience and I hope that you all have a great day…**

 **"Wherever you may be peeps!"**

 **Hold on, why is there a bunch of moths gathering around us?**

 **"Oh no. :[ "**

 **Alright, what did you this time? (-_-)**


	15. Chapter 14: Discovery in the Dark

**I swear this whole situation is the most ridiculous by far, now our lives are on the line because the Moth God is angered at us because you broke his cherished lamp.**

" **I swear it was an accident, my rival caught me off guard and our fight found its way to his domain, I didn't even know we broke it until he gave us this warning."**

 **Accident or not the only thing keeping us alive right now is my promise that I can buy a new lamp for him which I found that is very specific and very expensive. Also I have this giant moth on my back that he said is to keep watch on us and is apparently indestructible.**

" **Again, sorry about this."**

 **Whatever, you owe me and my wallet for this. Let me get this chapter going before it bites me again.**

* * *

Chapter 14: Discovery in the Dark

A lone medevac flies over the green feild just a mile below it towards an unknown destination, its cargo being a small task force of Dominion troops and scientists. The soldiers that comprise the group are a single marauder and a contingent of five marines that are all sitting down with the exception of the former who naturally towers above them all. One of the marines adorns a couple of white bands that run down his arms to distinguish himself from the others as the squad commander.

The scientists themselves are only three in number with light protection wear and carrying slightly bulky scanning equipment with them.

The purpose of this group is to investigate a psionic disturbance of a concerning class level deep in the southern part of the forest at around an hour ago. Since the colonists first landed on Argia there had never been any Zerg or Protoss presence that have been detected on any level before, and as a result no one is taking any chances on ignoring this phenomenon.

"Alright everyone, we're nearing the landing site, get ready to drop in five minutes." The pilot says over the intercom causing the troops to move a little as they check their weapons one last time.

"Hey, what do you guys think we're gonna find when we get there?" A marine asks his fellow passengers around.

"I hope it's some zerg, I'd really like some cooked hydralisk today." A comment was thrown out in response.

"Yeah, I'm hopen' to do somethin' exciting today." Another marine responds.

"What about you Hunk?" The marauder jolts from his staring of the wall and looks at his comrades.

"Whatever it can be I'll just blow it to smithereens…" The heavy hitter then notices the slight worry of the scientists. "...after the civies get behind me off course." Though he doesn't know it this brings a slight comfort to the smaller terrans.

"Can it, all of you, we're gonna be dropping soon." The squad commander barks out which plunges the cargo bay into complete silence once again. They all soon feel the ship start to gradually descend towards the ground. They all stand up and grab the railing in anticipation for their departure while Hunk just braces himself.

"Alright everyone, prepare to get off." They task force gets jolted around a little before the hatch at the center opens.

"Everyone get moving now!" The marauder jumps down first as the gravity tube slows down his decent before he landed with a heavy thud.

Two cannons are raised in the air as Hunk moves forwards while scanning the crater that was once a forest clearing, soon the marines drop in one by one, copying his movements in different directions. As soon as a small circle was formed the commander drops in and quickly examines the area to see for himself that the crater was just about half his own height before speaking.

"Alright, the ground's clear, drop them in." The scientists were quickly dropped in alongside their equipment before getting to work. "Check the edges of the creator, that might help on giving us ideas. If not then keep watch for trouble as for all we know it could still be around." They quickly do as ordered and move towards the edges of the crater in pairs.

"I'll fly around and keep watch from above." He nods before the medivac flies off to start her patrol.

Hunk is accompanied by another marine as they climb up to the surface with the hulking soldier encountering more trouble doing so than the latter. Using his cannons he eventually gets up while his companion waits, it doesn't help that the marauder is bulky in both body and armor.

The two look around at the shaded forest looking for anything that could be used as clues to figure out what happened. The only thing that is around them are the sounds of birds chirping and the wind blowing plants around.

"Uuuh, I don't think that we're gonna have much fun." This would be true if it isn't for a pair of eyes staring back at them from within the dark foliage.

* * *

Cronos kept low as he observes the terrans investigating the crater, he's curious as to how they found out in the first place. He does remember Ares being told by Sira about numerous other planets being colonized by humans over the years. They must've landed on one such planet and just ended up far away from any established settlements and remained unnoticed until now. He's still uncertain on whether or not the terrans know that they exist to begin with, sure they're investigating the result of Ares' outburst but they still don't know that he caused it. But right now he must warn his brethren about this discovery.

' _Janusar.'_ Cronos calls out.

' _What is it?'_ Janusar replies.

' _I've discovered that there's terrans on this planet.'_

' _What? Do they know about us?'_

' _No, but they are investigating the crater that Ares created, they must've picked up on the energy somehow.'_

' _Continue to observe them in secret then, if they show any signs that they have found out about us then warn us immediately.'_

' _I will, and also, how is Ares doing?'_

' _He's doing better than before, but his mind is still recovering from the experience.'_ He hears a slight somber in his tone.

' _At least he's okay, just make sure that he doesn't get lost again, alright?'_

' _I'll make sure of it. Just stay hidden and fight if you have to.'_ The hybrid goes silent after that leaving Cronos to continue his surveillance.

He worries about his brother, especially after their youngest sibling's outburst, he's been the type to look at reality as it is and not idealised as a contrast towards his terran equivalent. This will no doubt result in a clash of mindsets that will cause some problems in the future if they all don't learn to adapt to each other in this world.

For him it would be leaving Ares alone out here even with Janusar with him, there's already tensions between them because of the aforementioned ideals and the former's mental state is still developing which would make him almost predictable. He barely saved him last time he ran off and he does not want that to happen again. At least on the station his safety was guaranteed and felt comfort in Sira's company weather it was legitimate affection or not. There are times however where he would doubt his brother's claim about the female just manipulating Ares but that's not for either of them to decide as of yet.

He hears a loud whirring sound and quickly received deeper into the bushes as the craft quickly flies by overhead, not even slowing down as it continues its patrol. But what Cronos is truly concerned of is one of the two terrans now staring directly at him, or at his direction anyways. It stared at the space in front of it with two rectangular orange eyes at a length of time that is getting him worried that he did see him. He stayed as perfectly still as possible as he stares down his possible opponent.

He doesn't know whether or not the bulky terran has actually seen him but he will not move until he can confirm this problem. The human continues to stare in his direction for nearly a minute putting the beast on edge to the point where his tendrils start to itch for a fight which he quickly suppressed. The urge to move starts to gnaw at him but the hybrid can't risk the chance of them being discovered.

To his relief, however, the soldier shrugged his shoulders and looks the other way, he must've just noticed the foliage move and just thought it was the local wildlife getting startled by the craft. This however gave rise to another question as to how the terran never seen his blue carapace against the greenery.

He looks down and sees that his body has changed in coloration from his usual dark blue into a dark green mixed alongside a lighter shade as well. He then holds a tendral blade up to his face and see's through a dim reflection that even his glowing blue highlights including his eyes are just a significantly dimmer shade of light green despite his vision never changing in the slightest. This explains as to how he hasn't been given away by them. He stares in wonder at this revelation and questions as to how he had gained such an ability.

He recalls while patrolling he decided to consume the essence of some of the local wildlife with the ability just feeling natural to him at the time as to satiate a hunger of his own. He did feel the genuine essence of living creatures flow into him as the creatures get robbed of their lives. One of them must've had the ability to camouflage and it was incorporated into him without him ever noticing it until now. This must've sprung out of the stronger reflex of him wanting to stay hidden from the terrans.

There is much he and his brothers have yet to learn about themselves and considering that they were birthed in defiance of nature their potential could be boundless if given enough time to grow.

But now isn't the time to think about such things yet, for now he must continue to observe the humans and see what they do next.

* * *

Beside a river Janusar practices his own abilities by keeping three boulders the size of him suspended in the air around him. So far he had held it for half an hour straight, he starting to consider trying his luck with a much larger boulder he saw at the base of the river.

He looks to his side to still see that Ares is still sitting against a nearby tree with his legs up to his chest, his wounds all healed and cleaned up but his clothing still bloodied and battered almost to the point of unusability. His blue eyes stare blankly into the matching sky letting thoughts flow through his mind.

He wants to do something about this, he wants to help his brother get through his troubled mind, but he doesn't know how to talk to his brother right now, they are so different that anything could set them off despite them being connected mentaly. He may have to leave him be for some time so he can compose himself. This is also the reason why he isn't considering to train him at the moment as any further stress could undo the progress of the recovery so far.

For now he must watch over him and ensure his safety, whether the threat is of Protoss, Zerg, or Terran origin. There's nobody else who can do so now.

' _I promise, I will make this up to you brother.'_ He thought as he continues to reach his own limits.

* * *

 **So apparently the lamp that the Moth God wants is only being sold in England, joy (-_-).**

" **I can pay for the flight."**

 **Do you even have any money at all?**

" **I created a bank account a while ago and hadn't used it since."**

 **How did you-**

" **I searched it up, don't worry, it's of this amount. *whisper*"**

 **Holy hell, you have that much!? Why didn't you say anything before?**

" **I sort of forgot."**

 **Of course. Well on that note, let's get the trivia going.**

" _ **Scientists have already discovered and described well over 135,000 different species of moths. Moth experts estimate there are at least 100,000 more moths still undiscovered, and some think moths actually number half a million species."(Debbie Hadley)(We can at least provide the author's name.)**_

 **What the, I never planned any of that-** _ **PRAISE OUR MOTH LORD!**_ **Hey get out of my head! :(**

" **Oh boy, well thanks for reading everyone and have a nice day or night wherever you may be."**

 **AND WORSHIP OUR MOTH LORD! Why does this happen to me!? X^(**


	16. Chapter 15: Unexpected Meeting pt1

**Well, that was quite an experience, though I think I may not look at a moth the same way ever again, but at least the Moth God isn't pissed at us anymore and didn't run into any trouble while in Europe.**

" **Yep, and it only cost me over $1,500."**

 **Which is only a droplet compared to the amount of money you really have.**

" **Yep, I'm a freakin millionaire!"**

 **Well it would really help with my college classes because they are coming around in a week or so meaning there will be less time for me to work on these chapters and therefore slower updates. I'll try to get them out in a weeks time when it comes around but no promises are made.**

 **So with that warning in advance given out let's get this chapter going.**

* * *

Chapter 15: Unexpected Meeting pt.1

Garis continues to listen in through the door for any potential threat that gets too close, he's been doing this for one and a half hours since the mutiny began. The ghost could easily end this all by eliminating the leader, Macros, but that would leave the whole group vulnerable to any marines that would happen to pass by and find them. His mission from the start of the whole project is to protect all unarmed personnel on the station, and his superiors were specific on that.

So far though he hasn't received any transmissions from either Captain Draco nor and so he must assume that the mutineers have gotten to them, he must assume that they are on their own to take down this uprising.

He had known of the plans to cause a mutiny on the ship for some time but at the time killing them wouldn't be a good idea as it would set off the majority of the armed forces and make the situation even worse and possibly destroy the entire project in the process. There was hope that it would never come to be when they finally found a planet to gather the resources, but the protoss attack jump started the munity and made a bad situation even worse. He did keep tabs on the people involved over the years and was willing to take any action if it came down to it.

Fortunately there's a certain group of marines who have been planning a countermeasure for this event, and though it was heavily improvised, he himself had decided to be part of it to increase the chance of success.

He hears footsteps behind him behind him and sees the brother known as Donatellin walking towards him with something in each of his hands. The marine shows that he's carrying two devices that both look like a slightly larger versions of the standard grenade that have been striped together from scraps with numerous different plates all welded together. Garis grabs one of the grenades immediately feeling the heavy weight typical of an object of its size. He looks back up to see his comrade pointing at his own head implying that he wants to talk to him psionically which he nods too before delving into his mind.

' _Alright if you can hear me these grenades aren't much different from your usual, except that they create a bigger boom. Just pull the pin and lodge it into that firebat's armor, I heard that they are tough but this should be enough to kill him for sure. I just created two to be sure.'_ Donatellin thought to the ghost.

"I am not going to leave the civilians upon my orders." Garis responds in his usual emotionless tone.

' _I know that, and I also know that you outrank me, but think about it, the faster you can kill that bastard the faster we can end this crap and ensure all these people's safety.'_ His ally continues to be hesitant on defying his orders. ' _Don't worry about us, we can use the crates to hunker down and my brothers can warn me about anything wrong that's gonna happen.'_ Garis can understand the marine's reasoning and despite the risk he knows that something needs to be done.

"Then I will go eliminate Macros while you create a fortified position, keep this civilians alive at all costs." He grabs both grenades and strap them on to his utility belt which puts a considerable amount of weight on him.

"Yes sir." He solutes and walks back to the others as to notify them of the recent development.

The ghost meanwhile turns and walks to the door before stopping in front of it. He again contemplates on his choice, there's still the chance that a stray maine discovered this room and notifies the other of them, but he'll need to rely on Donatellin while he goes on the offensive. He slowly opens the door and raises his rifle with his finger on the trigger ready to quickly dispatch any hostiles that may be on the other side. He walks out into the dark hallway as he continues to survey the area looking at both ends for the enemy. All is silent on the ship so he closes the door as silently as possible and begins his mission to eliminate the firebat.

* * *

 _Battlecruiser Bucephalus_

 _Location: In Orbit around Helios_

 _Time: 1232, shipboard time_

Within the lavish bridge of the capital ship _Bucephalus,_ illuminated by Helios' star, prince Valerian Mengsk looks up at a holographic screen which displays a man with green eyes and white hair and matching facial hair.

"As for the artifacts, we now have the coordinates of all the pieces. Let's just hope that the Queen of Blades doesn't interfere too much." The man said.

"That's good to know Narud, I'll let you continue your work now." Valerian said before he hung up on the scientist.

He turns around and looks out the viewport that overlooks the temperate world where he had recently built a veteran's hospital which has helped his public image quite a bit. It is a beautiful sight though despite the planet's almost desert-like surface conditions, but then again he could say that about every star system he ever visited.

But what he's really thinking about are his more personal activities that are going well as he has Raynor's Raiders working for the Mobius Foundation and by extension him and so far they are doing well in retrieving the xel'naga artifacts that could deinfest the Kerrigan despite the interference of the Tal'darim. With each piece that they collect the closer he is to proving that he is better than his father in being emperor by defeating the Queen of Blades and bringing the Dominion one step closer to everlasting peace. He just hopes that they can retrieve all the pieces before the Zerg can cut too deep into Dominion space.

"Sir, we're receiving a distress call." A creman reports.

"Who is it from?" Valerian asks.

"It looks like it's of Confederate origin sir." This causes the prince to raise an eyebrow, he never expected their like to contact anyone. Sure he was aware of small remnants here and there but never had they call out like this.

"Put them through, let's see what they have to say." He walks back towards the console before a screen pops up at the same spot where the previous one was showing a crewman who is expressing a face face of fear.

"To anyone receiving this message this is the _Sanctum_ of the Confederacy, we need help, our science station was destroyed by the Protoss and our ship got heavily crippled in the process. There's a mutiny happening on board and we have little in the way of armed forces left. There are civilian survivors who can't-" Gunshots along with a series of screams can be heard in the background causing the man to look over only to turn back with an even more worried expression. "Oh god, they just killed the captain! Please, anyone, help us! Our coordinates are in the message, please send help-" A flurry of bullets hit the man repeatedly causing another series of screams and making his blood spray across the console as he falls to the ground.

Valerian and his crew continue to watch as seconds went by while the footsteps of a marine in the distance. They see the hand of the person grab hold of the console and start to lift the bloodied body up, smearing even more blood unto the computer. The footsteps get louder as he continues to pull himself up letting out pain groans in the process. Before the soldier supposedly responsible could reach him, he presses a button which causes the screen to freeze and ending the message.

The prince processed the message before speaking up.

"I don't have anything planned for today, do I?"

"No, but you're not thinking about-"

"I am, plot a course to the _Sanctum's_ last known location, lets see if we can rescue some survivors _._ " Not deciding to object any further the crew move the ship out of the planet's orbit and prepare to make a jump. Based off of the man said in the message, he gets a hunch that they may prove useful in the future, especially with the protoss with the science station being attacked by the protoss. What could they have been up to that provoked the advance race? Must've been important.

He just hopes that this mission will not take too much of his time.

* * *

 **Alright let's get this over with, jet lag is wreaking havoc on my energy. ╎P**

 **Trivia of the day:**

" _ **The design of the Playstation 2 is based on an old Atari computer the Falcon 030 Microbox. Sony bought the Design patent when Atari were going bankrupt"( )**_

 **Well, talk about originality, but then again nothing is really holly original these days, just spun in a different way.**

 **But with today's chapter all done and over with, thank you for reading this chapter…**

" **And we hope you have a great day or night wherever you may be peeps! 3"**


	17. Chapter 16: Unexpected Meeting pt2

**Sssup everyone itsss been a long time hasss it? If anyone isss wondering why I'm like thisss it wasss because I accidently made contact into a mutagenic ssslime a week ago that temporarily turn me into a sssnake. It ssshould ware off ssshortly.**

 **Asss for other newsss the reassson for my hiatuss is becaussse I burnt myssself out with the one chapter per weak thing and collage isss a thing now too. From this point until at sssome point in the future expect a chapter within a three-week period so I can ssstill have a deadline yet give myself sssome wiggle room to actually work on it. Hehe, wiggle.**

 **I'm sssure you had enough of me, ssso I'll let you be while this mutation wearsss off.**

* * *

Chapter 16: Unexpected Meeting pt.2

Macros looks outside the bridge's viewport and into the dotted void of space in almost complete silence except for the humming of the machines around him. It has been awhile, maybe an hour or so, since the firebat and his men have taken over the ship after narrowly escaping the protoss. As if he really knows though, he doesn't keep track of time.

Despite the silence however, he's frustrated that not only the head scientist has escaped but also a good chunk of the scientists are also hold up somewhere in the ship, and the busted lifts aren't making it any easier for him. They were no doubt either sabotage by the ghost or just suffering from a lack of maintenance. A silver lining though is that his men are starting to narrow down the number of places that they're hiding in and that there's no one else trying to kill them.

"Alright, how are those engineers doing with those engines." Marcos asks with a slight hint of annoyance in his voice to the crew members who are fearfully serving him.

"T-they were able to get them stabilized, but without the necessary amount of parts not all of them will be functional." A female crewmember responds while looking over the _Sanctum_ 's specs.

Macros lets out a groan of frustration and ignites one of his gauntlets and lets out a plume of flames up into the air causing the entire bridge to flinch out of fear. He then puts his finger on the comns button and starts talking.

"Alright everyone listen up! Were goanna get moving to find some more parts as soon as we find a place to get some! You just keep finding those eggheads but leave the head one alive for me!" He lifts his finger off the button an diverts his attention back to the bridge. "Alright, now get an idea about where we really a-" All of a sudden a green flash appears out in space and a cruiser adorn with brown metal plates, spikes, and blades takes its place. "Oh, what now!?" Seconds later two more similar ships appear at its flanks and start to immediately move to the cripple ship's sides.

"They're hailing us sir." Another crew member reports.

"Alright then, let's hear'em." He hopes that by talking to these newcomers he could be able to convince them to help him. A screen pops up in front of the firebat showing a man with dyed orange hair and heavy cybernetics on his face. Macros immediately recognizes him as a pirate

"Well well, look what all that crying lead us to." The man said in a gleeful tone.

"So, I take it you got our message then?" He's aware that it was the distress call a previous crewmember sent out before being gunned down by his men, but that call could've gone to anyone.

"Yeah, I heard that you got a little mutiny problem here as well."

"We took care of them, just mopping up the stragglers." He lies about the incident hopping to pacify the pirates.

"Well we also see that you are operating a confederate ship, no?" Macros tenses up at the captain's change in tone, no doubt criminals like them have a problem with the Confederacy. "I'm surprise that there's any left after what happen to it." This brings the attention to the entire crew the moment it was mentioned. Is the pirate captain really implying what the majority of the crew really believe for the past four years? Could he even be trusted?

"Wait, what happened to the Confederacy?" Even the firebat is worried about this prospect, despite his criminal record at least he was familiar with the Confederacy, he could only wonder what has happen to it.

"Wow, you really are clueless as to what happened, well to put it bluntly your Confederacy was taken down and replaced with something called the Dominion." This confirms the fear and suspicions that the remaining crew have had for so long. One is even on the verge of breaking down from the news. "Well, it seems that you're not taking this well, not my problem. We'll just take your stuff now."

"Wait! We'll join you!"

"Nope, not letting any ex-Confederates in my crew, that's my motto even now." The screen disappears and a large number of objects start to eject from the pirate ships and arching towards the _Sanctum._

"Drop pods incoming!"

"Damnit! Get all our crew to the bridge, forget the damn survivors!"

* * *

 **3 minutes earlier**

Garis runs down the empty and quiet halls of the Sanctum, making his way towards the bridge and to the mutiny leader Macros with his feet carrying him like a leaf through a storm despite the added weight of the grenades. His trail towards his destination has only begun however as he still must make it up the lift shafts that head towards the same level as the bridge and luckily, he knows the ship from bow to stern. The nearest lift that goes directly to the top level is just a couple of hallways away and so far he hasn't met any resistance from the enemy, their numbers are too small to establish an adequate patrol web.

He still keeps his guard up despite this as the chance of him running into a marine is still there, as slim as it may be, and he doesn't want to get caught by surprise.

"Alright everyone listen up! Were goanna get moving to find some more parts as soon as we find a place to get some! You just keep finding those eggheads, but leave the head one alive for me!" The familiar voice of Macros echoes through the hall giving the ghost insight on the actions of his target.

He continues to silently run though the dark and quiet halls as he makes another left turn which should lead him towards where he needs to be. To his surprise when he makes it to the lift, he finds it to be in poor condition no doubt from the lack of attention by the maintenance crew to conserve the little resources they had before. All but a few panels including the control one have been stripped for spare parts, they truly were desperate at the time.

He steps on the lift itself and finds out that it's stable so he looks up the lift shaft to see the door he's looking for two stories above him. He holsters his rifle and starts to scale the wall to his left by clinging on to one of the outward extensions like he did at the hanger. With each foot he goes up through, he readjusts his footing to fit into the various pipes and machinery that line the shaft's walls, his training has made this task easy though. As he makes it halfway up however, the whole ship was filled with the familiar sound of an alarm which briefly surprised him.

Shortly after, a tremor shakes the entire shaft and presumably the ship itself as well giving the operative a good idea on what's going on. Now knowing the agency of the situation, he starts to hasten his ascent by beginning to take leaps to rapidly close the gap.

He feels the walls vibrate again and a metallic groan sounds off from above, he quickly looks up to see a large metal chunk speeding towards him. His arms and legs instinctively propel his body to the adjacent wall allowing him to dodge the falling debris. He recognizes this as the symptom of the ship's lack of attention and continues on this time on the watch for any falling chunks of metal.

Seconds later another more powerful tremor shakes the shaft causing ledge he's grabbing on to buckle under his weight and break apart. In a moment of free fall his other hand grabs another ledge leaving him dangling while the shaking subsides. He continues up remaining unphased from the events.

That last tremor showed him now that something is terribly wrong so he hastens his ascent until he reaches the door. He lifts himself up and presses up against the door while checking his sensors for any hostiles. After confirming that it's all clear beyond the door he ignits his psi-blade and starts to cut straight down the middle leaving a trail of molten metal behind. After he finished cutting the sealed door open, he pries one of the frames open and enters the screaming hallway.

He was going to continue his mission until a dot appears at the edge of his radar followed by at least six more, all having unknown IFF classification, he'll have to assume that they're the hostiles responsible for the recent events. From the way the dots are moving they'll be turning the corner to him in a few seconds, so he cloaks and steps against the wall to await them.

Through the wailing alarm he hears the heavy footsteps of the insurgents growing louder the closer their owners unwittingly get to his position until he sees the first individual reveals himself to be a marine that is no doubt not from this ship as seen with the brown and spiked covered armor.

"Hey guys, found a lift." The marine said just as he looks over to the lift he just came out of and runs over to the door. "Aw shit, it's busted." His fellow soldiers catch up with him as he's examines the door.

"Yeah, and this cut looks fresh as well, probably sabotaged." Another marine said.

"Damn crew just gotta' make this difficult, don't they?"

"Then shut up and go find another one, there's has to be one that leads to the cargo hold." A third member orders which he believes is the leader of the squad due to the greater amount of decorative spikes on his armor and a skull painted on his helmet with a mohawk on top. However, it's the fact that they're heading towards the cargo hold that alarms him, he knows that Donatellin doesn't have enough firepower to take on this group and defend the surviving scientists below.

Without a second thought he activates his psi-blade once again and dashes towards the closest marine slicing him in two.

"What the hell!?" The others start to panic and raise their rifles at where the ghost was seconds ago only for another marine falls dead in pieces.

"Damnit men shoot it!" The commander yells before he witnesses another one of his men falls prey to their invisible foe.

"Where? I can't see i-" The solider was cut off as his arm falls limply to the ground before his torso splits in two.

The commander and the remaining solider recover from their shock and open fire at Garis' general direction which he easily dodges and quickly dispatches the last marine. The commander continues to fire his rifle in a fruitless attempt to kill the ghost.

"Show yourself you bastard!" He said seconds before he himself stopped firing. He drops his rifle in pain and a visible cut appears across his torso before his two halves fall with a heavy thump on the cold metal ground.

The ghost looks back at the carnage he left behind for any survivors, but all he sees are the cut up remains of what was once a marine squadron with limbs, legs, and torsos all strewn across on a now bloody floor in a cold stillness, all except one. The body of the commander is somehow still moving as drags his upper half across the floor to get his gauss rifle. He promptly stabs through the armor where the head is instantly killing the marine and leaving no survivors, as it should be.

"Maritin, do you copy?" Garis speaks through the intercom towards his comrade.

"I do, what's going on over there? Everyone here is in a panic." The worried filled voice of Sally Maritin responds to his message.

"Unknown intruders have boarded the Sanctum, most likely pirates, I want you and the survivors build fortifications from the cargo crates in case they find your location."

"Y-yes sir, I'll let the others know. But please be careful out there, we've lost enough out here."

"I will." He cuts off communications with the medic and was about to walk away from the carnage when he notices a green point on the edge of his sensors, it seems to be alone and is stationary. With a positive IFF this is something he can't ignore according to his primary orders, it could be a survivor who was separated from the rest or even Dr. Daniels if he had manage to escape.

He sets off, leaving the carnage he created behind to search for the survivor.

* * *

Within a dark room that used to be the living quarters of a solider, Dr. Daniels sits in the corner away from the light that comes through the small gap of the open door. The alarm blaring outside serves to him as a voice that constantly reminds him of all the catastrophes that have happened to him and his crew over the past day. Starting from their isolation from the Confederacy which left them with no source of income for their research, to the protoss attack that leaves them with only the battlecruiser, followed by the mutiny which only sapped even more of their resources, and now this. The level of anxiety that this all caused him is beyond anything that any man could live through so the only favorable choice for him is to just hide and prey that this all blows over in whatever way possible.

He starts to hear the familiar heavy thumping of marine footsteps echoing through the piercing alarm and cowards into the corner even further to avoid their attention. He let them pass by as they fail to take notice of them and continue to run towards whatever they are heading towards.

Seconds later he hears three shots ring out in short succession and three loud thuds were heard soon after. This caught his attention as he looks up but didn't move anything else out of fear that it could just be another soldier out to kill him.

Light footsteps could be heard rapidly approaching from the opposite way, his anxiety grows as they get closer, not knowing who the owner of them is. His breathing gets faster and more sporadic with each second that pasts despite his attempt to subdue it. A shadow quickly appears filling in the only sliver of light that filled the room, this is it, he's going to die on this accursed ship stranded in the middle of empty space. All his hard work and dedication to create the perfect solider are all for nothing as for all he knows the only specimen is dead or long gone and out of his grasp, and they were so close too.

The shadow forces the door open letting the light flood the room and define the one behind the shadow, this was the moment where the scientist finds a shred of relief in such a dire time as he recognizes the silhouette. The figure steps in confirming the identity of the silhouette:

Garis.

"Dr." Garis says calmly causing the doctor to breath a loud sigh of relief at the sight of the ghost before he spoke.

"Oh, thank god you're here Garis, at least someone here with a gun isn't trying to kill me." Daniels said.

"It's good to see you alive, but I need you to report on the condition of the captain." The operative doesn't waste any time despite the reunion.

"His condition? He's dead, killed by the very bullets meant for me." He hears the solemnness in his voice but ignore this as he shifts through his mind. He sees that indeed the captain has been gunned down as he was pushing the lead scientist out of the way. "Can you please tell me as to what the hell is going on here? I doubt that even Macros could cause the ship to shake like it has been."

"A third party has board the ship, most likely pirates, but I don't know as to how they found this ship. I came up from the cargo hold where everyone else is at to eliminate Macros."

"I think I have an answer to that problem…" Garis continues to listen hoping to get some more insight on to the situation. "Before I escaped, I heard that one of the bridge staff sent out a distress single before they were killed."

"And the pirates have traced the message back to us."

"Exactly, and by the way, when you said survivors did that also include Sira?"

"Yes, she's alive and well." This brings a sense of relief, despite her prior relations with Ares her talents in genetical science is just as infallible as his.

"But what should we do about this? If we leave this as it is it's only going to get worse." Garis realizes that he does have a point, leaving the pirates to their raid will no doubt leave no survivors as they tear the ship apart.

Two more red dots appear on the ghost's radar and are heading in their direction fast causing him to be on guard once again.

"Stay inside." The scientist asked as to why but was ignored as Garis steps outside and faces to their left with his rifle up and finger on the trigger. He waits for a few seconds as he waits for the dots to come around the corner only for him to open fire the moment he saw the first what he confirm is a marine show himself. The other marine pulls his partner back into cover before the shot can hit something vital.

"Whoa there! Friendly, friendly!" A voice shouts out as their hand waves from around the corner. He recognizes it and lowers his rifle in response. The two marines step out revealing one with red markings and the other with orange markings, they are Tralph and Mike, two of the three remaining brothers that took their side during the mutiny and played insider for them. "Nice to see you too." Tralph remarks jokingly as they approach him.

"What are you doing here?" The firmly put question almost catches the two off guard.

"Straight to the point even now eh? Well we were given orders to get back to the bridge and so were heading off from the engine room when we were trying to find you."

"Yeah, we even ran into a couple of pirates along the way which we totally killed." Mike added with a hint of childish enthusiasm.

"Definitely, so what'cha doing here man?"

"I've traced down a survivor. You can come out now Dr. Daniels." A second later the scientist peaks out of the room only to jolt back in when he sees the two marines.

"Hey, it's fine doc. We're not with Macros." The elder brother speaks in a slightly lighter tone as to try to coax him back out.

"Yeah, we don't even like the guy." The other brother chimes in to add reassurance to the scientist. It seems to be enough to make Daniels look out again, the marines loosen their hold on their guns which makes the scientist comfortable to fully come out of the dark room and back into the hallway after almost an hour of hiding and joining the group in their circle.

A strong tremor shakes the entire ship as if to remind them on their situation.

"Okay then, so how are we going to stop this?" The group starts thinking of a plan on to how to go about the situation. Since they are stuck between a rock and a hard place any plan they make will no doubt end in their ensured deaths so it's best to make the most of it.

"I think I got a plan…" Tralph speaks before looking at the scientist which makes him nervous. "…But I don't think you're gonna like it."

* * *

The group run down a corridor with Daniels just hanging on the shoulder of Mike which the former does not enjoy very much despite his protest of the plan in it's entirely, he's also surprised that they were able to convince Garis to actually go along with it. Ahead of them though is the large door that leads to the bridge, he still can't believe that he's going back after narrowly escaping but somebody needs to pose as a distraction for the flaming brute.

A low rumble shakes the entire ship again as they finally come upon the bridge, continuing to remind them of the bigger threat that lays just outside the ship.

"Hey, open up! This is Tralph and Mike, we just came back from the engine room, and we got something that the boss would like so open up!" Tralph yells as he knocks loudly on the door. The door starts to open as a response, Garis cloaks before the door could fully open as to leave the those at the other side unaware of his presence.

The door unveils the bridge where a group of six marines are strewn across the bridge with some among the bridge staff looking out to the three pirate cruisers that take up most of the view outside. Alongside them are what's left of the engineers and the rest of the miscellanies crew members that made it.

"You two sure took you sweet time, we were going to lock the door weather you knocked or not." The marine closest to the door remarks.

"Give us a break, we were at the other side of the ship." Tralph retorts as they walk in.

"Heh, looks like you got the lead egghead."

"Yep, ran into him on our way here, thought we should bring him along for the boss." The doctor groans as the door behind him starts to close and the marines carry him to Macros. "Hey boss, got the egghead that you wanted."

As they approach the firebat he turns around showing that he is furious, probably because of the current situation outside. A grin forms on his face however when he sees the doctor.

"Well, it seems this day got a little better at least, set him down." Macros ordered and the brothers do as they're told by setting Daniels down rather harshly in front of him. "I have been waiting for this for a long time, the moment that I make you burn for all the shit you put all of us through." Meanwhile Garis sneaks around and holding one of the custom grenades while Macros continues to gloat. "Now time to finish you off." He ignites one of his gauntlets in anticipation

"Sir!" A bridge staff yells out causing him to growl in annoyance.

"What is it now!" He yells as he turns to the person in question.

"We're detecting a warp signature coming to our left."

"When will it be here?" Suddenly a massive flash of green light appears above all the ships momentarily blinding the entire bridge. When it fades the sight that they all behold is something that is both amazing yet terrifying: a cruiser of titanic proportions of the likes that none of them have never seen.

* * *

 **Wow, that was an interesting experience, good thing I hadn't had work for that week. But I also didn't see my mechanical counterpart anywhere for awhile, that's a relief, wherever he goes trouble usually follows. Now on to the fun fact of the day:**

" _ **The Brahminy Blind Snake, or flowerpot snake, is the only snake species made up of solely females and, as such, does not need a mate to reproduce. It is also the most widespread terrestrial snake in the world." (Karin Lehnardt, fact retriever .com)(Just remove the spaces for the website)**_

 **Wait what? Well that means they must be asexual in their reproduction or something similar to that, I thought that only microorganisms are capable of such a feat. Nature never ceases to surprise me.**

 **With all that done I hope that you all have a great day or night wherever you may be, see ya!**


	18. Chapter 17: Unexpected Meeting pt3

**About a day late but that ain't late by too much, so there's that Silver lining. But seriously though, work and collage are real attention whores here and are barely giving me a break here. But with the powers of stubbornness and time management I'll always get a chapter out for you guys. Not even this killer robot that just appeared in my front yard can stop me. Wait what?!** **○ _○**

* * *

Chapter 17: Unexpected Meeting Pt.3

A shadow blankets the entire bridge as everyone looks in awe at the massive ship looming over the four ships that might as well be bugs in comparison. Even the ghost was taken back by the sudden appearance and the mere existence of such a craft. Last that he remembers the Confederacy has never built such a ship during the entirety of its rule.

He quickly notices the three pirate cruisers are turning around and retreating and quickly jumping away in response to the newcomer's arrival.

Deciding to exploit the shock of his opponents he raises his rifle and lets off two shots to the marines within the crowd causing them to fall to the ground and the bridge to panic. Tralph and Mike quickly join in as they gun down a couple more marines before they could react to the death of their own comrades. The remaining marines raise their rifles to kill to traitors but where dropped by the ghost before they could pull the trigger and in seconds only the firebat remains.

"Garis…" Macros growls as he realizes his presence on the bridge. He had always known that he would interfere with his plans at some point, fortunately he came prepared.

He lowers his visor and a small apartment under the gauntlets themselves open and immediately started to spew out a light smoke. He waves his arms around as to spread the smoke as fast as possible until nearly the entire bridge was filled in the smoke.

The brothers, now with their visors down, begun firing at the firebat but the armor prevented the user from being gunned down like the rest. Macros doesn't waste any time as he lets out his flames unto his assailants causing them to dive rather clumsily out of the way. "I had my suspicions about you two." He says before seeing movement in the corner of his eye in the form of smoke swirling around in a vague humanoid shape. He immediately fires at the shape, nearly catching it as it dodges out of the way. "Your cloak won't help you here ghost!" He laughs as if he already won.

Meanwhile Dr. Daniels hid away under the captain's panel during the chaos, hoping that the others can kill the mutineer and end this nightmare once and for all. He suddenly notices the telltale sign of a label flashing the meant someone was trying to contact them. Without any alternatives as to what he can do he got up after seeing that Macros was thoroughly occupied and answered the hailing which caused the holoscreen to pop up revealing an image of some sort of young, blonde man in some sort of royal gown.

"Hello, is anyone there? This is Prince Valarian of the Dominion and captain of the _Bucephalus,_ and we've came in response of your distress call. Please respond." The young boy speaks in a calm tone in contrast to the battle going on across from them.

"Thank god, this is Dr. Daniels, lead scientist aboard the _Sanctum_ , we are currently fighting off the mutiny as we speak." He informs the blonde captain.

"Then I'll send some forces on board your ship to support yours." As though prompted by him a good size group of smaller ships, which he can identify as the same sort of dropship like what the Confederacy had, launching from the gigantic ship and are heading towards them.

"Thank you." He then looks back seeing the now uncloaked ghost continuing to dodge the raging flames of the firebat.

"Damn it just stand still!" Macros yelled as he continues trying to incinerate his rather pesky opponent.

Garis tries to close the gap between them with one of the grenades already in hand in an attempt to end the fight quickly but was unfortunately met with a wall of flames close to the ground. This caused him to drop the grenade and send it flying until it landed near the doctor.

"Nice try!" The two marines join back in the fight as they start to hail him in a flurry in bullets hoping to hit his fuel tanks. He quickly turns around and let loose another stream of fire onto the brothers but this time hitting the one marked in orange as he was too slow to react. The marine yells out in pain as the fire pushes him to the ground.

"Mike!" Tralph yells out as he quickly tends to his brother, who's now laying on the floor groaning in pain. "Jesus Christ, are you alright!?" He looks down at his brother, his blue armor now sizzling from the heat.

"I think so…" Mike replies before wincing in pain as he attempts to move. "…but my arms and legs don't feel so good." Tralph inspects these areas and quickly realize that the flames did their worse at the joints where there was less armor. He drags his brother all the way to the console to keep him away from the resuming fight between Macros and Garis.

"Just hang in there Mike, I'll sock one in for you."

"Thanks." The orange marked marine may be the lighter hearted of the brothers but he's still as tough as they come, he's sure he'll pull through in the end. This was the thought that pass through Tralph's mind as he turns back to confront the brut that he now hates.

"Alright you son of a bitch! We're goanna take you down!" He declares as he let his gauss rifle loose against Macros hitting some exposed areas and earning the firebat's attention as he turns to try to burn him as well, but he misses as the marine dodges out of the way.

Garis meanwhile took advantage of both this diversion and the now dissipating smoke, he cloaks again and quickly dash towards Macros, activating his psi-blade in the process and aiming for something different: one of the tubes that feed into his left gauntlet. He swiftly severs the tube rendering the left gauntlet useless.

"Why you!" He growls in anger before letting his remaining gauntlet spew out its flame against the ghost only for him to dodge it.

But his distraction was taken advantage of yet again when Tralph grabs hold of the remaining fuel tube and pulls out a knife right before cutting it in two rendering the other gauntlet harmless. He was thrown off by the shear force of the juggernaut's mass and was preparing for another stream of flames to be thrown at him. But only a pif of fire came out of the gauntlet as the remaining fuel quickly leaked out. But Macros only laughed at this as he rather calmly take a neutral stance.

"You think the smoke was my only trick?" A rattle started to emanate from his back with a gradual increase in volume until his armor was entirely enveloped in an intense flame effective turning him into a living fireball. "HAHA! Try using that blade now!" He exclaimed manically before charging at the ghost like a raging bull with the intent to trample him into a charred pulp.

Garis dodges out of the way and starts to examine the armor, from what he can see from the flames they are indeed intense enough to greatly damage his suit proving the firebat is right in that he can't use his psi-blade against him. But he also sees that the fuel needed for this to happen will run out quickly so all he needs to do is outlast him until that fuel is exhausted. But it seems that his opponent is aware of this as well as when he dodges out of the way Macros swung his arm causing the fuel tube to swing around and sling the still leaking lighter fluid towards the ghost. He quickly notices and uses his rifle as a shield and though not all of them hit their mark, the ones that did hit portions of his rifle and suit, where they quickly start to eat through the affected areas. His rifle is rendered useless as too many components have been melted through and a portion of the left leg of his suit has been eaten through revealing part of the user to the outside world for the first time in years and causing an intense stinging pain. He lands a distance away, ignoring the resulting pain and tries to cloak but fails to do so only showing the damage of the attack to his suit so he readies himself to another charge instead.

Tralph open fires at the flaming hulk to divert his attention away from the injured Garis with complete success as Macros starts to charge towards the marine with upmost ferocity. He jumps out of the way only for the same thing to happen to him as he gets sprayed with ignited flamer fluid but due to his more sturdy armor and the fortunate event of none of the fluid hitting any joints he wasn't as affected as his comrade even when the armor is being melted.

They both notice that the flames are starting to lose their intensity and more gauss rifle rounds are sent flying to keep his attention. An audible growl can be heard from the red-clad flamer as he charges again but in a more ravaging manner as if he knows that time is running out.

He's just about to get out of his way when the strong force of Macros' grip on his right shoulder stops him mid dodge and held him in a firm grip before gripping his other shoulder. Despite the flames being less intense it was still hot enough to start slowly melting through the armor. He struggles but the grip is too strong for even him, and his foe looks determined to keep him in his grasp. Tralph tries to use his gauss rifle but the pain in his arms spike as the flaming hands dig just deep enough for the heat to start burning his arms. He yells out in agony as his skin begins to be burnt off earning a laugh from the sadistic brute.

Suddenly bullets start to fly in bursts from Macros' left as they puncture one of the tanks causing more lighter fluid to leak out and making the flames die off even faster. Annoyed, he throws the suffering marine towards the source of the opposition which is causing it to stop immediately. He sees that Mike was trying a last-ditch attempt to save his brother but the impact at which he threw him has effectively put them both out of commission.

He was just about to turn around when he feels the weight of the ghost on his back making him instinctively thrash around to try to get him off.

Garis holds on with one hand as he grabs the other grenade and arms it before wedging it in between the tanks. He jumps off only to feel his momentum stop and be slammed to the ground as the firebat catches him with frightening speed.

"If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!" With the other arm Macros pins him down to the head.

Both of them can start to hear the high pitch screeching as the grenade approaches ever close to blowing them both apart. But Garis has other plans as he activates his psi-blade and reaches around to stab the now exposed wrist forcing Macros to release his head while yelling in pain. The firebat lifts him up to keep him from trying anything else but this only gives him another opening for him to exploit as he leans up and stab the other wrist causing him to fall to the ground and leap far out of range of his enemy.

At the same time the screeching has reached its peak making Garis brace for the explosion while Macros starts to run towards him in a last-ditch attempt to have him share the same fate. But before he could he was engulfed in flames and was blown apart in a magnificent display of fire and flames, finally ending his short reign of terror aboard the _Sanctum_.

* * *

Despite his distance from the explosion, Daniels' ears rang out while he tries to regain his breath as the shockwave knocked the air out of him. After recovering just enough to move his whole body he looks up the see the aftermath of the confrontation, and to his relief it seems that Garis and his comrades have won this battle. He can finally take solace that the monster if finally dead.

"That sounded bad, is everything alright?" Valerian asked in worry.

"Now it is, we just took care of our problem…" Daniels replies as he continues to examine the area as he sees Garis laying against a while the two brothers are recovering from their rather harsh injuries which creates a slight look of worry on his face. "…But just barely."

"Don't worry, my troops are sweeping the ship for any pirate stragglers and are heading towards you position."

"Thank you." He sighs in relief before remembering something. "Wait, didn't you say you were "Prince" of the Dominion?"

"Yes, why?"

"I want you to tell me what you know about the Confederacy."

"Demanding already, well, I'll happily oblige. From what I can remember, four years ago my father, Arcturus Mengsk, overthrew the Confederacy and established the Dominion, though he isn't any better than them." The scientist's face contorts to that of despair, his worries were right after all. "Looks like you're not taking this well, I'm sure I can fill in for your unemployment."

"Wait, what?" His head jolts up in shock at the statement. "What do you mean unemployment? Do you mean you know…"

"That you're once part of the Confederacy? Yes, I do, that symbol on your hull isn't exactly subtle, but I am interested in your crew. Well what's left of it." Daniels was confused at this statement before the prince continues. "While on our way here, I've taken the liberty of researching your ship as I've never heard of it before only to find out that it wasn't even part of the Dominion to begin with, so I've searched the archives until I found out that the ship was part of some sort of secret project that the Confederacy hid from the rest of the sector. This only piqued my curiosity about your ship, so I had to find out for myself."

Daniels just stares at the screen while he processes the whole statement, what is he supposed to do now? The very organization he worked for is gone and the son of the very person who overthrew it in the first place is staring right at him with a ship capable of wiping them off from the face of the sector with ease. And just when his worries were over.

"There's no need to threat though, I'm far more merciful than my father, and my aforementioned interest in your group is also your saving grace as well. So, I have a proposition for you: you can join me aboard my ship, there you will have up-to-date resources and far cleaner living quarters for your crew, I still have plenty of room for them, and you will be sheltered from the eyes of my father and his Dominion. If you don't, well, will your ship really survive in its current state?" Daniels headed his word and looks around the bridge, and the blonde has a point, the walls are covered in grime that are dripping down like water, and a lot of the console are barely working as they are. He also can't forget about the wear and tear throughout the entire ship during his time around it, and the Protoss attack have destroyed all the weapons and heavily damaged the ship to add on top of this. Their hands are truly tied behind their backs.

"Fine, we'll take your deal."

"Good to know that you see reason, I'll have my ships escort your cruiser on board and have a medical team ready for any injured personnel." The transmission cuts off and seconds later the dropships from earlier fly in front of the ship.

"Alright, just follow us and do what we say, we'll get you in." One of the pilots says in only audio and the ships all turn trying to prompt the criuser to move.

"Alright then, follow those ships." The crew of the _Sanctum_ does as ordered and start navigating the ship alongside the dropships. He looks back and starts moving towards Garis who's still sitting against the wall and clutching his burnt leg. "Garis, you alright?"

"Affirmative, but are you sure about your decision on this?" Garis asked.

"I am, we don't have any better options now. But I want you to tell the others about the situation."

"Understood." While the ghost starts to communicate with the survivors below Daniels starts think about current events.

Despite everything that has even over the past day, from the protoss attack, to the nightmarish mutiny, a lot has happened in such a sort amount of time that it may have wiped a few years off him. But in the end things have eased up on them and they have a second chance in their lives and his research, even if it's under new management.

The Confederacy may be gone, but there's still hope for them after all.

* * *

 **So, my alternate self came just in the nick of time to save me from the killer robot, even if he nearly died a couple dozen times.**

" **Your welcome!"**

 **Yeah yeah, thanks really, well did you find out as to why it was here?**

" **Not really, when I went to interrogate it, it self-destructed before I could get anything out of it."**

 **Well that's just peachy, let's just get the fact of the day up now:**

" _ **The word "robot" comes from the Czech word robota, which means "forced labor." It originally referred to peasants, who were obligated to work for their lords under the Fuedal system." (Burke,**_ _**www. Factinate things 41 . c o m ) (Just remember about the spaces, these things are so stingy -_-).**_

 **That's pretty fitting for what robots are all about. Now let's keep watch of any that would want to cause trouble, who knows how many are out there.**

" **Got it, and next time I'll get the information before they kill themselves."**

 **Alright then. Now for all my readers out there, thanks for reading my chapter and I hope you have a great day or night…**

" **Wherever you all are peeps!" ^^**


	19. Chapter 18: Storms Within

**So, happy Thanksgiving everyone :) currently with family over in California and having a fun time.**

" **I'm here too."**

 **Yeah, currently there's no one here to see you now, but I advise you hurry on out of here because I still don't know how they'll react to something like you.**

" **Oh right, a human disguise, nearly forgot about it. That's how I got the bank account to begin with."**

 **Then put it on and get ready, I think my mother's coming up now.**

* * *

Chapter 18: Storms Within

Within the garage of a small house, Isabel and May work on the on a custom car that is suspended at least a head above them its makeshift frame emanating a rested orange tinge by the gleaming sunlight that is able to seep into the room, they have been working it for a couple years now planning on it being given to Isabel when she's ready. Underneath it, the two work on its underside and in between them lays a rather large container of some sorts made out of various parts that were meant for it.

"Alright, do you remember how to install this energy filter?" May asked.

"Yeah, I think so." Isabel answered with slight hint of hesitance, they've been practicing with building this car by constructing it and deconstructing it over and over again. So far she's been successful at remembering to put together almost every part of the car, but the one mechanism she always has trouble with is with the energy filter.

"Alright then, **without** reading my mind, install it inside." The redhead accentuated causing her surrogate daughter to roll her eyes playfully, she and her dad always said to rely on her own instead of relying on that of others. She never understood why, but then again, she's not one to interact with a lot of people.

She picks up the container with some trouble due to the weight and fastens it into its spot, however it's still suspended by only her arms alone so she still needs to put the four latches on to properly secure it, and that isn't easy for her. But luckily, she got an ace up her sleeve, she starts focusing her mind on the four latches trying to grab hold of them with her mind. One starts to shake a little as she continues to mentally grab hold of the hook until it suddenly folds into the gap it's meant to fit in on the filter. One by one the hooks follow suite, but right before she could get the last one her head starts to ache.

Images of red and black started to appear in her head, though too brief for her to make out, brought intense stings each time they flashed causing her to lose focus. But she held on as the last image flashed by leaving her in a cold sweat, breathing a little harder than before, and having a looser grip on the filter. Thanks to the laches she secured, the large cylinder didn't fall on her.

' _Damn it, not again.'_ She thought before she quickly recovered and used her hand to fasten the last latch. These images have been happening since they arrived on Agria, no doubt because of what happened on Tarsonis, but now is not the time to think about that.

She now comes upon the hard part: trying to connect the right wires to the right sockets that are part of the fusion cell, which there are five of each, and if she connects the wrong pair together it will cause the cell to feedback into itself when the vehicle is started causing it to explode. She had always had trouble remembering which goes where no matter how many times she was shown and even read the memories of May on the matter. Speaking of which the blonde tries to read her mentor's mind, but she found that she's thinking about a dancing cartoon banana with stick-like limbs and googly eyes dancing around. She held in a laugh after realizing that the redhead must be deliberate thinking this to keep her from cheating. The woman had plenty of practice over their years together.

Isabel focuses back onto the wires and starts to rummage through her rather skewed memories in order to find the correct way they are arranged. But a thick red haze in her mind has hindered her progress as she pulls out a memory or two of what's she's looking for. She then grabs hold of one of the tubes and connects it to the port that she knows getting three of them in, however, the two that are left are unfortunately the ones that she can't seem to remember. Despite all her efforts she can't break through the red cloud that covers her needed memories so she takes a guess by taking one of the tubes goes to a the socket that's on a higher position from the other and connects them. After connecting the remaining tube to its socket, she steps away from the car's underside and looks at May for confirmation.

The older woman walks towards the car and inspects the filter's tubing judging them intensely for a few seconds before she disconnects one of the last two tubes.

"So close Isabel, nice job though." She gives a smile while she disconnects the other tube and switches them around.

"Hehe, thanks." The blonde teenager responds as she wipes her forehead with the undirtied part of her hand.

"As for what you did with the latches though…" Isabel stops at hearing this "…you got to always look around before you use your powers, or else-"

"I'll get reported on and get taken away, I know!" She cuts her off in annoyance since she's been hearing this statement for years now and she doesn't want to get reminded yet again about how much of an outsider she.

But after gathering herself back together she looks at her "mother" and sees the impact of her response in the form of a sadden expression on her face.

"I-I'm sorry."

"It's okay, we told you this more than enough. Let's take a break from this for now." She starts to walk to the garage door with her head slightly bent down. Isabel just stands there not knowing what to do in the situation except to just stare in grief. "I'm going to make some drinks." The redhead exists the garage leaving the young girl to stand alone in the garage. She balls one of her into a fist and storms off to the open door leading outside in anger, but not to May, but to herself.

"Damn it, why did I have to go and do that?" She says to herself as she sits on a nearby log.

May is a kind person, and she respects her, but more as a friend than an authority figure like her parents. The only reason why they know each other is because her mother and May have worked together as engineers back on Tarsonis before she was even born making them long time friends. After her mom told her about Isabel she came by every so often and they quickly became friends with her being the only other person she had ever had social contact with. But after her mother's death and May taking her place their relationship has gradually deteriorated over the years after, but neither of them want it to get any worse.

"I need to make it up to her, but how?" Outside of mechanics she knows how to craft various objects out of anything. Over the years of isolation in her room she learned to craft objects just to pass the time only for it to become a passion and a work of art to her. "I could create a necklace for her, but I don't have the materials for what I want to make. Ahhh damnit!" She furiously rubs her head as she tries to find a way to make it up to May but couldn't. Her latest project had sapped her of the majority of the resources she had.

She quickly snaps back up at a thought, her father goes out hunting for food and she often goes out with him in order to learn how to hunt and to gather crafting materials in the form of rocks and plants at the same time. She can just tag along and find some more materials hopefully a pretty rock or two from one of the nearby rivers.

With a game plan in mind she sits up to go back to the house when suddenly she feels a more intense pain ring through her head like earlier as images start to flash before again, however, when it stopped she found herself within the smoldering ruins of a city with a blood red sky above her. An overwhelming sense of fear and dread immediately overtakes her like an animal as she looks around frantically. Suddenly a growl starts to echo from among the ruined buildings causing her to panic even more while she searches for the source. The sound soon starts to grow in frequency and volume with its owner still nowhere to be seen as the blonde desperately tries to search for it. Her breathing becomes more sporadic and heavier the longer the search goes on as the fear digs even deeper into her like a hot needle. This was until the animalistic noises start to converge right behind her and she turns herself around to follow them until she was met with two glowing, hateful yellow eyes against a dark silhouette staring down at her causing the fear to paralyze her entire being. Before she could let out as much as a scream the creature raised its arm tipped with scythe-like claws and strikes down at her letting out a horrific scream right before the whole world was switched back to reality.

She's now on the ground with her arms to her head and breathing uncontrollably in a cold sweat. After taking a few seconds to recover she opens he eyes while her breathing slows, but she catches some psionic energy faintly emanating from her arms before they dissipate. The rest of her body starts to relax as she starts holding her still aching head. She stands back up but nearly stumbles back down as the dizziness sets in.

"Come on, why now?" It's been a few months since her last episode and throughout all that time she thought that she had finally gotten over that dreadful event, but that's her fault for thinking that it would be so easy. But she now wonders what caused it to trigger now, could it be what happened yesterday? She can't be sure, but she's definitely sure that can't talk about it with her father, there's no way he'll let her go with him if he finds out, especially since it's a really touchy subject for him. She had heard him cry a few times before because of it.

The blonde decides to go back inside to wash up for the day, especially after what she just witnessed. But before she could, she hears the front door open and out comes her father in gear that comprises of large black boots, buckled camo pants, and a jacket of the same pattern with leave-like cloth around the arms and back and a rifle holstered over his shoulder. She knows exactly what this means: he's about to go hunting. Isabel walks towards her father who immediately notices her by turning his head to her.

"Hey dad, going out hunting?"

"Yeah, just found out that we're running low on food, I'm going to get some more." He responds.

"Alright then. Also, um, may I ask you something?" She tries to act innocent and nonchalant to coax him in.

"That you want to go with me?" This makes her eyes grow slightly wider.

"Wait what? How did you…"

"You may have mind reading powers but I can read you like a book. And no, you're not going this time."

"But I feel fine, I really do."

"That may be the case, but you still can't because of what happened yesterday, whatever caused that could still be out there and I don't want you to get hurt."

"But…"

"No buts! You're staying inside." The sudden outburst from her father caused her to coil back defensively, she knows more than anyone how he's like in this state and would rather not push it. She was considering walking away when he kneels down and puts a hand on her shoulder showing a remorseful expression. "I'm sorry about that, what were you going to say?" His voice was softer than before reliving some of her stress.

"I accidentally went off on May again and I want to make something for her to apologize." Her voice was weak when answering but her father just sighs as he quickly understands her situation.

"And you want to get more materials, I see. You're still not going, but I can get the materials for you if you like."

"Really?" Her eyes light up as she starts to feel a sense of joy.

"Really, now go make a list of what you want."

"On it!" A big smile formed on her face as she starts running back inside the house.

"Make it snappy, I want to be back by sunset." She snickers at this as she closes the door behind her. She lets out a loud sigh of relief with a smile before running towards the stairs, she's glad that her father is still alive.

* * *

Ariel is sitting on her chair overlooking a rather messy desk filled with papers surrounding a computer with their contents ranging from basics genetics to the various conditions for the colony itself, she is the de-facto leader of the colony after all. despite the large workload that's in front of her there's a different subject on her mind and that's the situation with Isabel and her family. Though she hadn't known them for too long she had grown rather attached to them especially for the girl due to her unique circumstances. The girl has abilities that the Dominion wouldn't dare hesitate to obtain if they found out, and Isaac knows this all too well.

But also there's the event that happened yesterday, so far she hadn't gotten any news about what caused it. All that was reported is a large crater at the site of the event, but there's no trails or remains that could help with the investigation. Since then nothing has happened that could be connected with it, but that's what they know so far, for all they know it could've been Protoss scouts surveying the world, or a small Zerg force that went into hiding. She can't be too sure about either of them, but something caused it and the family is the closest to it which makes her worried.

Suddenly her tablet started to ring causing her to part from her thoughts and look down at it seeing that someone is calling her. She quickly answers the call by tapping the screen which quickly after shows a man with black hair wearing a visor that's covering his eyes and a lab coat similar to hers.

"Hello Ariel, sorry to interrupt you at this hour." The man spoke.

"It's alright Thyme what is it that you want to tell me?' Ariel answered.

"It's about the weather, it's getting bad."

"How bad?" She raises an eyebrow at this news.

"Category 5 bad." A screen pushes aside his portrait and shows a weather report screen. On it is a large red and orange blob growing against the blue background that represents the ground and resting once it got too big. "This represents the storm just from the past couple of hours, it's growing faster than we thought it could. It's approaching the colony from the south side and is bound to hit us."

"Have you warn everyone else about this?"

"Yes we are, you're one of the first to know."

"Alright I want you to evacuate all the personnel from the building immediately. I'll coordinate the town's countermeasures." She ordered with a more serious tone as she starts to comprehend the seriousness of the situation.

"Will do, good luck Ariel."

"You too Thyme." The transmission cuts off leaving Ariel with a new problem to worry about now.

The south side though, that's where Isabel and her family live in, they'll be the first to feel the storm's effects. And since they're quite the distance away from the colony they can't receive any help, Isaac made sure they were isolated just enough from everyone else, primarily for Isabel's sake. Last that she heard he never took the lost of his son well.

She takes out a smaller device from her pocket and turns it on, there she navigates to the contacts app and starts to dial their number into it. This device is what she uses to specifically call them making her their only contact outside their immediate vicinity. After typing the number in she presses the call button making it play the familiar sound of contacting the recipient.

"Yes?" May soon answers from the other end.

"May? Good, is everyone at the house?"

"It's just me and Isabel, Isaac went out hunting an hour ago, why'd you asked?"

"A category 5 storm is heading your way, the entire colony is preparing for it."

"Alright, I'll warn my husband about it immediately." She answers with a little distress before she hangs up.

She sighs before she shuts down the computer and starts to head out the room with only anxiousness running through her mind as she continues to worry about the family. She really does hope for the best for them.

But for now she must worry about her colony folk.

* * *

In the forests of Agria, Janusar and his brother Ares both sit next to a river with the latter using it to wipe off the blood of his previous meal from his mouth and hands. Meanwhile the former just watches for a short distance, this is because he's still feeling the uneasiness of his younger sibling in his mind. He doesn't know what to do in this situation, they're finally free, free from their metal cages, free to do what they want, free to become more than just mere weapons for some foolish terrans. So why is it that his brother nor himself not satisfied with this? His only answer to this is due to the wretched influence of Sira, due this influence Ares wasn't able to focus and therefore stunted his growth in abilities. But how can he cure this, last time he tried to make him see reason he lashed out at him, he also can't understand the affection that he has with the human. He thinks that she cares about him, but Janusar is adamant that she's just doing that to make him comply with their demands. This frustrates him to no end since their damnable influence prevents their brother from being truly free.

He looks over to his brother to check on him only to see that he's just sitting there with one of his hands in the water. But what he also sees is psionic energy softly emitting away from his hand and rippling into the surrounding water, a sight that is beholding to him in his own right. He soon sees the water in front of him start to bubble then rise until it was at least five feet tall. The pillar of water soon begins to mold itself into a vaguely humanoid figure and from there starts to become more defined in shape. At the end of its transformation it took the shape that greatly resembles Sira causing the hybrid to squint his eyes in disbelief.

But he senses something else as the figure starts to move towards his brother, and that is the emotional state of Ares. The uneasiness and guilt that once took a complete hold on his mind was losing its influence and is slowly being replaced with a sense of relief and joy. The figure walks in front of Ares and kneels down while outstretching its arm, cupping his cheek and prompting him to look up with what looks like tears and a smile on his face.

At this moment Janusar looks into Ares' mind and sees that it's tranquil for the first time since they've arrived on this planet, and to be honest to himself he's glad that his mind is finally at such a calm state, but he doesn't see it as kindly as he would like due to it being by the image of Sira. But perhaps he should leave him be, it's for the best that he stays like this for now.

Suddenly a loud boom startles them both causing Ares's creation to fall apart and both of them to look over to the source of the disturbance and what they both see is a sight that even the eldest of the two are taken aback to.

Hanging high in the sky is a large dark cloud that overlooks them both and and the land beyond like a titanic creature looking down at bugs despite its vast distance away from them.

"What is that?" Ares asks in curious fear.

"A storm..." Janusar answered, remembering about the thoughts he read off the scientist back on the station, he had learned a great deal from his time on the in that stasis pod.

"Brother, the terrans are abandoning the site." The voice of Chronos echos within his mind.

"And we may know why, meet with us back at the cave, quickly!" Cold winds start to pick up as the cloud grows closer.

"On my way." After they part minds Janusar turns around, immediately scoops up Ares in his arms, and starts moving away from the impending storm.

"Janusar..." He hears Ares call out.

"What is it?" He asks his sibling as the winds become stronger. He begins to hear something behind him causing him to turn around to investigate. The next thing he sees is a large stream of water rushing right towards him.

With no time to dodge he instinctively turns his back towards the incoming flood to protect Ares and putting his own shield up just in time to take the impact of the water. It crashes into them with great force causing the shield to frizzle wildly and earning a struggle from the hybrid. It took him everything he has just to keep the shield up and parting the violent stream away from them.

With each passing second his strength wanes as that of the flood only grows causing him to slide back little by little. He looks down at his brother who is currently holding on to him for dear life with fear permeating his mind. This sight gives him the resolve to continue fighting the endless tide, hoping to outlast it until the storm runs past them. But this was a fight that even he should know he can't win as he looks up to see the cloud stretching out for miles with no visible end in sight. This impacts his own moral rather quickly which was only made worse by his weakening power against the relentless tide. His body and will start to give in as the floods begins to overpower him. Finding this battle to be futile he uses what little strength he has left to envelope them both in a shield just strong enough to keep the water away from them.

"Hang on!" He orders his smaller sibling before he let he and himself be swept away by the tide, taking them deeper into the forest.

* * *

 **That went well, your disguise is a lot better than I thought.**

" **Well duh, now they think that I'm your rich friend that met with you at an anime convention."**

 **At least being my friend part is true, now let's get to the fact of the day:**

" _ **Children can also develop PTSD**_

 _ **Children recognize, understand, and process things far more than adults realize. Anything that can cause an adult trauma can also cause a child trauma. Whether it's a car crash, sexual assault, or something else, it is entirely possible for a child to develop PTSD. Children are likely to express their trauma in how they play. For instance, their drawings might be darker, or they may pretend to hold a gun if they witnessed a shooting. PTSD in teens, on the other hand, is more likely to manifest the way it does in adults and exhibit itself in angry or aggressive behavior..**_ " _**(**_ www. ptsdjournal / posts/10-surprising-facts-about-ptsd/ _**)**_

 **Yeah, nobody is safe from the grasp of terror, for any of you going through this stuff, I hope for the best for you guys.**

" **Yeah, me too. I'm surprised that I hadn't developed it myself considering what I've been through."**

 **Same here, but for you it's probably because you actually enjoy what you do.**

" **True, now should we end this before your family gets mad?"**

 **Yeah, thank you all for reading and have a nice day or night…**

" **Wherever you peeps may be."**


	20. Chapter 19: Storms Without

**Well, Merry Christmas to you all from here in California once again, I hope that you are all spending this time with your family just as I am, I was just playing with my baby cousin yesterday and to be honest that was the most fun I had with someone who is younger than me in quite a while.**

" **Yeah, you two were so adorable playing together, never knew that you had a soft side for young kids. X}"**

 **Yeah, when said kids aren't making my ears bleed with their infernal screeching.**

" **Agreed, now should we move on with the last chapter of 2019?"**

 **Right, but before we do, stay until you have read my question at the end of this chapter, it's important.**

* * *

Chapter 19: Storms Without

Janusar struggles to control his momentum as the large stream of water carries both him and Ares down it in a violent fashion. The younger of the two meanwhile holds on tightly like a scared infant, unwilling to loosen his grip despite the force of the tide against them.

They suddenly crash into the riverbed as they come upon a tight turn taking a chunk of land with them and causing considerable strain to the hybrid's mind as his shield took the blunt of the impact. As they continue on the shield gradually loses its strength despite his efforts to keep it up, and knowing this he forces his head out of the water to look for a vantage point. He searches for something among the trees and rocks that rush past them but couldn't find anything suitable for him to latch on to. That was until he sees a tree hanging over the river quickly coming towards them and with little hesitation he reaches for it, but not with his arm, rather with his psychic tendrils on his back as they extend out and wrap around the trunk of the hanging tree giving him a foothold against the rapids.

But unbeknownst to him the tree was leaning in loose ground caused by the flood and he quickly realized this as it starts to give under his weight. In an instant the tree is ripped from the ground and starts to flow down the river causing the hybrid to let go and succumb to the strength of the tides once more. Now with a new obstacle with them, the situation looks dire for the two, but the elder only sees this as a new opportunity as he once again have his tendrils wrap around the tree and start pulling them in. Once getting through the force of the waves, he climbs on top of the trunk and holds on tight with one arm, and with most of his energy spent on keeping his shield up this was a relieving moment within the storm.

This was cut short when he begins to hear a loud rumbling sound to his left and when he looks over to investigate he sees that some sort of landslide is pushing through the trees which add to its size. Seeing this as something to not be concerned about he looks back forward to navigate the tree off the river, but instead he sees a series of outcropping rocks that block their way. He starts to steer the tree with one of his tendrils in the hope of avoiding them, but he was too slow as before they could reach the edge the tree makes contact with the first rock causing the entire structure to jolt violently and interrupt his task. Right after that it hits another outcropping throwing it and the two brothers into a clockwise spin as they try their best to hold on. By the time they reach the furthest rock their momentum was at its peak and when the two objects collide the tree snapped in two and sending the brothers flying away from each other.

As they fly through the cold air, Janusar immediately reaches out to Ares with both of his tendrils but they never caught him as they reached their limit just a few feet away from him. The two continued on their unchosen courses as Ares lands in the water and he lands onto the river's edge, nearly taking a tree down in his landing. He gets back up and traces the path of of his brother to follow for a second. But before he could pursue his sibling he hears a familiar rumbling from behind him and just as his eyes locked with whatever was creating that noise all he feels is the pain-filled sensation of tons of earth enveloping him.

* * *

The hard and stinging sensation of crashing through the river's surface spreads across Ares' entire body before he was fully submerged within it, the air he was once breathing seconds ago now being replaced with suffocating water. He thrashes around with all the strength that he has but the wrath of the tide is overwhelming for the young hybrid to oppose as it continues to thrash him around. He gasps for air which only lets more water in causing him to panic even more and thrash around far more violently in a vain attempt to break free of the river's grasp but this only worsens the sensation of suffocation that he feels.

But if by fate or by blind luck, he was lurched up to the surface by the river's momentum giving his body much needed air as he takes a deep gasp of the cold and rain filled air and removing the constrictive sensation from his lungs. He was quickly submerged again, but with fresh air within his body he was a little calmer than before and looked around his surroundings as calmly as he could in such a situation, trying to think of a way to get himself out on his own as he can sense his own brother not being able to pursue him.

At first he tries to conjure up his energy in order to use it as propulsion through the water, but time after time he couldn't get the energy to travel through his body as his mind is still rather stressed enough to break his concentration. The booming sounds of thunder, bright flashes of lighting, and hard pleting of rain keeps overflowing his senses along with his constant need for air as he's repeatedly forced back into the water. All of this is bringing him to the point of exhaustion as he feels more weight in bringing himself to the surface each time and gulping in more water with each emergence.

With seemingly no hope to escape his fate his strength and resolve starts to wain which only increases the severity of these effects and bringing an ache across his body that he can nao feel through everything else.

Just as he was going to pass out from the sheer exhaustion he sees an object ahead of him which he quickly crashes into, his arms instinctively latch on to what is quickly figured as a rock with newfound energy. But this is not to last as he starts slipping seconds later with the strong tide speeding the process by lubricating the rock's semi-smooth surface and pushing against him.

Just as he's about to lose grip of his only hope of salvation something catches his arm, but at that moment his sight is severely weakened so he couldn't see who or what caught him. Before everything went dark for Ares, he feels himself get pulled out of the torrent and onto land, then just like a soothing wave the feeling of rest washes over him as his eyelids finally close and everything was drowned out by a pleasant silence.

* * *

 **20 Minutes Earlier**

Within the forests of Agria, Issac has quietly transverses through the foliage for the past 30 minutes, his hood up, rifle in hand, and watching out for any big game that he can take down. But for now he's on his way to one of the sites where he had set up one of his traps a few days prior. He has been through two of these traps already but they came up empty, which brought a hint of frustration to his mind, he wanted to be self sufficient in order to keep her daughter from having to rely on open society as much as possible to keep her secret safe. He never wanted to see her daughter taken away from him as he did with his son, the pain of that was almost too much on it's own. But he can't dwell in such memories, he needs to be on the lookout for any potential food to catch.

But so far everything has been quiet, a little too quiet for his taste, could it be that what caused that psionic dustribence a couple days ago? He doesn't know and to be honest he would rather not find out what it is, something that would create such an event would no doubt kill him in an instant even if he got a good shot in, he had already heard the stories of the Protoss and experience the horrors of the Zerg first-hand. He just prays that no such threat had landed on Agria, he never wants him nor his daughter to experience such traumatic events ever again.

This was when he comes across one of his traps next to the base of a tree, but to his relief there was something caught in it, a small furry brown creature with a long fluffy tail and black and white stripes running down its back was caught within the cage with its neck snapped by a clamp inside. He kneels down and opens the trap to get the animal out and this is when he got a good look at its length, it's about a foot long and looks plump with fat and meat, a perfect catch to lighten up his day. He puts it into his backpack and takes a piece of bait out of a side pocket which consists of a blend of meat and plant material he made himself. Next he carefully rearms his trap and puts the bait in before moving on in search of his next trap.

A few more minutes of trekking through the woods leads him to a rather sizeable river that is about ten feet wide and is looking too deep for him to just walk through. He looks down the river to look for anything that can help him get across it and to his luck he finds a few rocky platforms that are just close enough. to each other for him to get across. He quickly walks towards this natural bridge, surveying it along the way to make sure that it is stable enough for him to travel across. By the time he made it he was confident that he can cross these rocks.

He hopped on the first platform with ease and was going to jump to the next when he sees a little twinkle of green light reflecting off the rock he's standing on. Remembering the list that Isabel had given her before he left, he took out his knife and looked for the right angle to start chipping out the little sparkling rock. He eventually does and starts chipping away at the surrounding rock keeping what he wants inside the boulder with some difficulty due to the knife not designed for this purpose. After a minute or two of digging the little rock out he wedges it out onto an awaiting hand.

Looking at the rock itself he sees it twinkling a beautiful green light as the sunlight reflects off its surface, he's sure that both Isabel and May will appreciate it. He puts it into his backpack and continues to hop on to the next rocks easily until he made it to the other side. He feels a small chill of the wind come across his body, but that's probably just a sudden wind gust he feels from time to time so he doesn't pay mind to it and moves on into the forest.

After some more time with moving through the strangely barren trees and shrubbery, Issac eventually comes upon a sizable pond within a clearing that is just big enough to leave only grass at its edges. But what caught his attention is a large, four legged creature with green and dark green patterns with large antlers is drinking from the water, this is what the hunter was dreaming to find. He unholsters his rifle, silently takes roost in the foliage, and takes aim, slowing his breathing to an unnatural degree as his past as a Tarsonis militia sniper takes hold. The sight slowly moves to the unsuspecting animal like a predator focusing on its prey from the shadows. The head finally comes into focus and he puts his finger on the trigger to ready himself to swiftly put down the creature, his heartbeat remains low despite the anticipation as his discipline takes over.

His finger was about to pull the trigger before a loud boom filled the air, startling the two before they both jolt up and look towards the direction of the noise. What they both see is a distant but large dark cloud hanging in the sky, flashes from within it signals another thunderous roar from the cloud seconds later. He also notices that the cold winds have picked up and is gradually getting stronger.

He looks back at his original target only to see that it's gone, it most likely ran away in response to the titanic storm. Deciding to follow its lead, he holsters his rifle and was about to move from his nesting spot before he felt some vibrating in one of his cargo pockets. Knowing that only May and Isabel are able to call him he immediately takes it out and to his confirmation it is may who is calling him right now.

"Hello May." Issac responds but he only hears static on the other side, no doubt being caused by the storm that is growing nearer, followed by snippets of her voice cutting through.

"Iss...st...ge..." He hears her voice continues to cut through the buzzing static but it was still indescribable for him, but considering its timing it must be about the storm.

"Look, if you can hear me, I'm on my way back! I repeat, I'm on my way back!" He hangs up right after, hoping that enough of his message has gone through and starts to head back to his home at great pace.

* * *

By the time he reached the river that he crossed earlier the wind has become harsh and frigid with the rain coming down hard on him which quickly soaked the majority of his gear and weighing him down heavily. But it's of little hindrance for him throughout his trek, but what lies in front of him will. The bridge of rocks that he used to cross the river has parts of it submerged in fast moving water that can easily sweep his feet if they were caught in it, he'll need to be careful this time.

He started with the first rock which was farther away due to the one after it being low enough to be submerged in the water, but when he landed on it he nearly slipped as the rain had made it dangerously slippery for him. He corrected himself with the utmost care due to his equipment making him top-heavy and got ready to move to the next one which was around the same distance away. He takes the second leap towards the next platform but the moment he landed lightning struck nearby letting a bright light and thunderous boom coincide together to rattle his senses causing him to have one of his feet slip into the water, this nearly made him fall off completely but he quickly got his foot out of the forceful waves.

The chilling cold of the water nearly rendered his foot entirely numb but he ignores this senseless feeling and steadies himself once more to make the leap to the last rock available, he takes this jump and landed on the rock with little incident. He was about to take the final leap when he started to hear the sound of rushing water to his right and looked over to investigate only to see a large wave of water coming right towards him. Without taking any preparations to jump his legs launched his body towards the edge, narrowly avoiding a grisly fate at the hands of the river's wrath.

He looks up, now covered in mud, and turns his head towards the river in a sense of relief for making it through the most grueling part of his journey, and he was about to get up to walk away until something else caught his eye. He saw something traveling down the river but he couldn't get a good look at what it is, he let his curiosity make him stay to find out what this thing is. It was when it reached the rocks is when he found out what it is: a boy. And the kid is hanging on desperately as he's fighting a losing battle against the raging rapids.

Not pondering as to why a kid is out here in the first place Issac immediately moves in to save the kid who is now on the verge of slipping off the rock. He reaches out as far as he can while calling out to the boy, but he doesn't seem to respond to his calls, this doesn't stop him from trying to extend his hand just far enough to catch him. The kid's hand inevitably loses its grip on the rock sending the kid back to the mercy of the tide, but to his luck Issac lunged his body with all his strength and grabbed the kids arm. Despite the resistance that was put up by the river he was able to pull both himself and the boy out onto land. After recovering some of his energy he gets a good look of the kid despite the rain. As far as he can see he has short black hair, looks like he's just younger than Isabel, and wearing some sort of attire that he can't identify due to it being so bloodied and battered. Though to his surprise he sees little to no cuts on him compared the the amount blood on him.

"Hey, kid, are you alright?" He didn't answer. "Kid?" He tries to communicate with him further but the child remained silent causing him to turn the boy over and see that he's knocked out cold. This is no doubt because of his experience in the river.

Not willing to leave him behind he picks up the child and carries him into the forest to bring him to his home, completely unaware of what he's truly holding in his arms.

* * *

 **Alright now for that question, considering how long this portion of the story is taking, because we're just over halfway through this "Agria" segment, do you people think that it's a good idea for me to divide this story into parts similar to how the StarCraft II campaign was to keep things easier to digest? It will be coinciding with the events of the canon and it will not change the events that I have planned for this story. I was thinking of this while writing this chapter in light of the amount of chapters that this first arc is taking and I don't want it to be overwhelming for newer readers.**

 **If no one responds to this then I will keep on the current course, if people do then I will end this segment where** _ **Wings Of Liberty**_ **ended and start a new story segment that takes place just before the events of** _ **Heart of the Swarm**_ **campaign and so on with** _ **Legacy of the Void**_ **to finish it off. It's just a thought though and I won't force you all into it if you don't want it, plus I like to read the opinions of others. You have until the end of the** _ **WoL**_ **arc to make this decision which is about a half a year or so depending on when I publish these chapters.**

 **Now with that news out of the way let's get to the** _ **Fact of the Day**_ **segment:**

" _ **A typical thunderstorm is about 15 miles in radius and lasts for approximately half an hour. Lightning from a thunderstorm can be witnessed as far as 10 miles away outside its radius." (**_ **Ranjan Shandilya** _ **) (htt ps / / : sciencestruck / thunderstorm- facts)**_

 **Yeah, I remember the last time I've seen a thunderstorm, I've been seeing the lighting even before the clouds were over me, and that boom from them, it shows that you shouldn't dismiss mother nature.**

" **Definitely, remember that time we were stuck in a dimension that was basically comprised of thunderstorms?"**

 **Vividly, I could barely sleep throughout the entire venture -_-.**

 **But with this all said and done, thank you all for reading this chapter and the story across the year and we hope that you all have a great day or night…**

" **And a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all wherever you may be! =D"**

 **See ya all next year. :)**


	21. Chapter 20: Memories 1

" **Hey, I brought Arkin back."**

 **The zergling? Ohhh no, last time he was here he wrecked my entire room. x^{**

" **Don't worry man, I have him tamed this time. It was a pain to make him behave but I made it work."**

 **Well, now that I look at him, he's definitely a lot more timid than before. Just keep a tight leash on him, I don't want him going off the handle again.**

" **Will do. ^ u ^"**

* * *

Chapter 20: Memories 1

Within the living room of a humble cottage home, May sits on the couch looking at the now darken window and the storm that rages outside, watching and listening as the raindrops pelt on the glass like pebbles in hopes of seeing Isaac out in the distance. Despite it being only ten minute since she last called Isaac, though she only heard static on her end, it had felt like hours since the storm looks bad to the point where the trees are rocking back and forth from the sheer force of the wind. She's aware the he's a resourceful individual with his history as a militia sniper, but there are some things that can prove too much for the man, but all she can do is hope for his safe return.

This hoping doesn't help with her anxiety as a thunderous roar echoes throughout the house only reminding her of the severity of the storm. She needs to do something to get her mind off of this, but most of the chores that needed to be done by her are already done. The only thing she can do now is to just think, and so she closes her eyes and let her mind wonder off into the depths of her psyche, hoping to find something that can eases her mind.

* * *

 _ **Location: Tarsonis**_

 _ **4 years ago**_

Within the streets of the spiraling Tarsonis City, the noises of cars and many other automotive fills the trails going about as they go about their daily business, above the towering skyscrapers is the sand colored sky, given its color from the heavy industrialization of its inhabitants. Among the streets walks a lone woman who is worming her way across the crowded streets towards an unknown destination, her diminutive size making the task rather easy for her.

Her attire consists of a hat covering most of her short red hair, a brown suite with matching pants that bag over large black boots and barely holding them up is a large black belt. The expression on her face was tired yet neutral with her hazel green eyes looking through thin slits and her breath being heavy despite the claustrophobic environment.

She continues to cut through the flowing tide of people until she eventually escapes the crowded streets through the alleyways. Despite the disorienting nature of these paths, years of navigating the city allows her to transverse them with ease.

After navigating through these pathways for some time she comes across a large opening, within the opening lies various buildings and factories that both consumers and workers are constantly walking in and out of. She scans through all these buildings until her eyes land on a sign familiar to her:

 _Kymal Automotive Services_

In front of the small building stands a lone woman with similar attire and long blonde hair that is tied up waving at her. She immediately runs towards the building, splashing grime ridden puddles in the process.

"Sorry that I'm late Maria, traffic was a whole lot worse today." The redhead said to the woman when she reached her.

"It's alright May, you're not that late. If we hurry, then maybe the manager wont yell at us." Maria said in a soft-spoken tone as the pair walk into the room. They are met with a man standing near a terminal, his brown eyes glaring at the two with a clear annoyance.

"You two are late." The man told them with a deep growl.

"We're sorry, won't happen again." The blonde said with some confidence while her partner simply cowered a little in response. They approach the terminal and took what look like cards out which they proceed to scan over the screen with which simply beeped in response. Despite how quick this process was the gaze from the imposing man had made May rather anxious as they walked away.

"You know, you didn't have to wait for me back there." She looks back at her friend as a hint of guilt pings in her mind.

"But work isn't as fun without you." A cheerful smile forms across Maria's face as she opens the door leading to the engineering bay which lets in a myriad of clicks and clanks of vehicles being worked on. She grabs two wrenches from a tool bench next to them and tosses one to May which she catches. "Now let's get to it." They now start to search out for a vehicle to work on in order to start out a new day.

* * *

 **Present Day**

Another thunderous boom suddenly takes May out of her daydream and back into reality, reminding her of the situation that's she's in, and so far there isn't a sign that Isaac has returned safely. Her worry returns, but it's not just for him, but also Isabel as well. Since the incident from today's confrontation between the two they have never even talked to each other, though their lack of interaction with each other is usually normal as of recent years, the addition of the incident has made things rather tense for her. This tension has been eating at her for hours and is only made worse with the absence of Isaac and the knowledge of him being out there in the raging storm.

She needs to do something about this, she doesn't know how long she can go on like this. Consulting with Isabel would be obvious but she's afraid that the girl is still rather sour about the incident since she's been getting more emotional as of late to the point where she'll lash out at any statement regarding her abilities and isolation. But there's nothing else for her to do and staring outside wouldn't solve anything.

After giving it some though she decides that she needs to reconcile with Isabel, surely enough time has passed for her to clam down just enough for her to listen, and also Isaac has traveled quite a ways away so it'll be a while anyways. She gets up from the couch and walks towards the stairs, and when she starts to go up them they creak under her weight which is also normal for her. After making it up to the second floor she is met with a hallway with three doors lining its walls with two leading to the family's rooms and one lone entrance leading to one of the two bathrooms in the house. With light footsteps sounding her approach, she passes the bathroom entrance and approaches a worn out looking white door which leads into Isabel's room.

Her body refuses to move however, her nervousness and hesitation keeping her from continuing.

' _Come on May, you got to do this, for her.'_ She thinks to herself as she takes a deep but silent breath and raises her arm in preparation to knock. Then her hand moves and lightly knocks on the door three times, but nothing responds. After a few seconds of silence, she was going to knock again when she was interrupted.

"You can some in." The muffled response of Isabel came through the door, its tone conveying a feeling of sluggishness and melancholy.

Doing as she was told, May opens the door, revealing a small but messy room with objects such as rocks, paper, and various other scraps strewn across the floor like a scrapyard. She sees that they were all clumped up in greater amounts when her eyes eventually found Isabel who's just slouching on her desk in front of the window which lets in the only source of light in the form of a soft blue ray.

Despite the hesitation she feels she makes her way across the room making sure to avoid stepping on the overly numerous objects in the dimly lit room, even moving some of them to the side to give it a semblance of tidiness. She eventually reaches the blonde, but once again hesitation filled her being as she starts to fidget her fingers and finding a way to start a conversation. A few seconds of rain-filled silence went on before May decides to break it.

"So, Isabel, pretty peaceful, isn't it?" May started, hoping to start something with the girl, but another boom of thunder echoes through the room which makes it awkward for her, but she continues. "Isabel, I'm sorry, I know that your situation is a sensitive topic for you, especially after all we've been through. I shouldn't have brought it up like that."

"No. I should be the one apologizing, you were just trying to help and I reacted way too harshly to it." Isabel replies through her arm as she continues to look out the window. "I just hate how I'm constantly reminded that I can't live a normal life, to listen to the kids running outside with their friends and not be able to interact with them. Even to this day I can't just go wherever I want since the Dominion are here, and they're no better than the Confederacy." Another flash of lighting illuminates the room which briefly reveals to May a tear rolling down her left eye.

Upon seeing this, May immediately kneels and wraps her arm around her shoulder which causes the younger of the two to look up to her, meeting crimson red eyes with hazel green. Isabel then buries her head into her shoulder which the woman returns with an embrace.

"I just hate it all." She hears her voice break a little as she continues on. "I just wish that things were better, that mom was still here." She begins to whimper while May rubs her back to comfort her. "And that you were still just a friend." This makes May tear up a little as she often wishes the same thing.

They continue to embrace each other, allowing the girl to settle down her emotions among the blue, stormy light. Only the pitter patter of the rain fill the room as the two calm their senses for a few minutes, then they loosen their embrace and look at each other again.

"So, May, can I tell you something?" She looks up as she wipes away the remaining tears.

"Anything."

"The visions, I'm starting to have them again." Her heart starts to race at this news. "I had it right after you left today, it felt so real."

"How though? You never had one for years."

"That's what I thought as well."

"What do you think caused it? Could it be from what happened a few years ago?" The memory of the event is still fresh in her head, the pained screaming and expressions of Isabel are still things that she's trying to get out of her head.

"I don't know, maybe? I don't know. But please do not tell my dad about this, He's already stressed out as he is and I don't want to add this on top of him."

"I promise, I won't say a word." May then butts her forehead onto Isabel's.

"Thanks." She returns the gesture with a smile. "You know, you would make a great mother someday."

"Mabey." They both separate again. "But I'm completely fine with where I am now." She suddenly starts ruffling up the blonde's already messy hair.

"H-hey stop that!" She protests with a chuckle as she tries to resist her assault making the redhead chuckle in response.

This was unfortunately cut short for the both of them when they hear a loud knocking from downstairs which caused them both to stop to listen in.

"You hear that?"

"Yes, I also sense that…" Her eyes suddenly row wide. "…dad!?" The two immediately stand up to this statement.

"You sure?"

"No doubt, but there's also something else with him, but it's faint."

"We'll figure out what it is later, let's just go help him out first." Isabel nods in agreement and they both quickly rush out of her room and towards the stairs.

A rush of excitement runs through her entire body as they make their way down the stairs, she can't wait any longer to see Isaac's face once again, and she's confidant that Isabel feels more intensely about this. They suddenly hear the crash that they assume is the door being forcefully smashed open as they reach the first floor. As they turn the corner they indeed see Isaac but he's caring a young, unconscious, black hair boy in his arms who is in rather poor condition, and behind them is the door now wide open and swaying wilding from the storm's wind.

"What the, what's happene-?"

"No time to explain." Isaac cuts off his partner. "May, get some towels! Isabel, get some clothes that can fit him, now!" Deciding not to question him, they both immediately turn around and head back towards the stairs. May turns to the right into another hallway while Isabel goes up the stairs as they now rush to care for their new guest.

* * *

 **Wow, so far it caused no trouble.**

" **Yeah, isn't he so cute? ^w^"**

 **As cute as a giant bug alien can be. Now let's get on with the trivia of the day:**

" _ **Romantic love and the love between a mother and child share a similar chemical connection…The hormone oxytocin is released during child birth and when a child nurses as well as during orgasm. Oxytocin is thought to help long-term bonding." (Amanda DeWitt, lifehack . org)**_

 **I'm sure mom and I have a lot of this chemical between us, she would kill anyone that would dare to hurt me.**

" **Yeah, I remember her giving me a nasty glare when I said that we were going on a field trip to the Grand Canyon a couple months ago."**

 **Well considering that the last time we were on a "field trip" I've ended up with a black eye and my arms infected with rashes that we were able to convince her were from poison ivy when really they were from a pissed off space blob. Good thing its affects were temporary. So I say that the glare was well warranted.**

" **Well the trip was indeed to the Grand Canyon but it was to look for a package from that Talos fellow that was meant for you."**

 **It was a lotion that can help me with getting rid of these micro scarabs easier, I'm glad that we made friends with that guy.**

" **Same here, he's the one who gave me this body retrofit."**

 **He's a good guy, and I also have good readers, so I hope that you all have a great day or night wherever you may be. |^)**

" **See ya all next time peeps! ;D** **"**


	22. Chapter 21: Interpersonal Encounter

**Heeeey peeps, your friendly neighborhood author here coming in with another chapter for you all to enjoy. I'm just recovering from a nasty bug that decided that it was a great idea to make the past couple of days a living hell. Don't worry it isn't the Cronavirus, but even if it was I'm going to survive it.**

" **Yeah, he wasn't in the best of moods either."**

 **Definitely now lets get on with the story everyone.**

* * *

Chapter 21: Interpersonal Encounter

After watching May and Isabel go behind the corner, Isaac turns right back around and kicks the door shut before any more of the storm's wrath can come inside. After taking a quick look at the storm outside he looks down at the soaked and bloodied boy in his arms with a hint of worry in his mind. The kid shivers in his arms showing the man that he's still alive, it's a miracle that the boy is still alive after all he's been through, but he still needs help.

May comes around with towels in hand and without hesitation she puts them down and starts putting some across the couch. After doing so Isaac puts the boy down, grabs a towel alongside May, and start drying him off wiping the remaining blood and mud off the boy's body. But to his surprise there's no cuts or even bruises all across his body, he could've sworn that he saw some while carrying him and the blood certainly isn't his own. The only creature capable of healing this fast would be the Zerg as he learned from Dr. Hanson, but this child looks nothing like one, just one of many things that he finds odd about him like the clothing and his presence out in the forest.

But he'll have to worry about that later as he now sees Isabel coming inside with a lob of clothes in her arms.

"I found everything that might fit him." Isabel said as she lays them on the ground. Isaac looks through them and quickly picks out a grey shirt, black pants and underwear.

"This will do, thank you. Now please let us be." Isaac says to the girls who both immediately do as told and went into the hallway.

Deciding to start with the pants he takes off the tattered pair showing that the kid was wearing nothing else underneath. He puts the underwear and the pants on quickly then he puts the shirt on next giving the kid a more complete look.

"You can come in now." The two come back out and look at the sleeping boy.

"So, tell me, where did you find him?"

"I found him in a flooding river, if I hadn't caught him when I did he would've been swept away and probably die in the process. It's a miracle that he'd survive as long as he did." Isabel begins to inspect the boy while he continues. "But I think that's because of his regenerative abilities since there were absolutely no wounds on him that I know I saw when I found him. But another thing that I found odd is the tattered clothing he was wearing, they are unlike anything that I've seen."

"So, what happens now?" Isaac begins to think about this statement, what is he going to do with this kid? He brought him back out of impulse and obligation as a parent figure and never gave it much thought about it. But with everything that he saw up until now he's now curious about what this child is.

"Isabel, can you do something for me?"

"What is it dad?" Isabel asked.

"I need you to go into his mind."

* * *

"Wait, what?" Isabel was shocked at this request, almost downright confused. "But I thought you said that looking through other's mind is rude."

"I know I said that, but there's always exception even to my words. There's something off about this boy and we need to find out what it is." Isaac retorts.

"Now that you mentioned it, I am sensing something rather weird from him." She continues to look at him with an even more inquisitive gaze. "Perhaps I can give it a try, but I'm not sure how to do this." She suddenly feels her father's hand on her shoulder.

"It's just like reading our minds normally but with some more effort." She looks back at the kid, still apprehensive about the task. "Considering that he's asleep you shouldn't run into much trouble, but if you do then I'll be here to pull you out, so don't worry." The blonde gives a small smile to her father before she starts walking towards the unconscious kid.

She looms over his head and, after taking a deep breath, puts her hands on its side and closes her eyes. At first nothing happened, but then the sounds of the world around her started to fade, muffled out by her transition into the mental realm. Then her sense of a grounded reality disappears as she feels herself float in the air along with the ever-fading world. She remained calm through this as she knew panicking during this will cut her off, but still, it's a rather surreal thing for the girl.

Within seconds everything went quite and when she opens her eyes she found herself floating in a void with no sense of what is up and down which quickly disorients her. She tries moving forward but this just causes her to tumble aimlessly in the darkness which caused her to panic as she has no idea where to go. She closes her eyes in hopes to remedy the disorientation, but it does little to help her.

After floating after what felt like a few minutes, she crashes into and then slides across what she believes is a glass floor for a few seconds before stopping. She opens her eyes only to still see the black void in front of her, but this time she has something to stand on. Slowly she stands up, trying to get over her dizziness and gather her senses together in this strange realm.

After getting her bearings together, Isabel looks around the space around her but still sees absolutely nothing of note. She figures that staying silent isn't going to progress things so she decides to break it.

"Hello! Anyone here?" She yells into the blackness but there isn't any response. "I'm just here to talk, can you please show yourself?" She continues to yell but only a still silence still remains.

Then suddenly, as if in response to her calls, she started to hear something akin to heavy footsteps coming from her left and approaching fast. She looks over to see what it is only to lay eyes on a large blue figure in golden armor wielding equivalently large blades on its arms running right towards her with seemingly killing intent in its eyes. With so little time to react, she holds her arms up, closes her eyes, and braced herself for the incoming impact. But when it was suppose to come she felt nothing, instead she heard the footsteps go on behind her now, so she looks back and see that the figure is still running along as if she never existed.

Suddenly she starts seeing more of the same figures running past her and completely ignoring them as if they were chasing something else entirely. This came to show itself when she started to hear gunfire in the direction of where they're running and her investigation lead her to see a line of soldiers firing at the beings along with some sort of rifleman like her father providing support, tearing them down seconds after they met. Then comes bolts of light coming from the alien's side and she quickly sees that their source are big blue quadrupedal machines that are unlike anything she'd seen before, just what does all this have to do with the boy?

She continues to investigate the area to find out but as soon as she turned back to the firing line she spots a group of people running behind them, this must be what they are supposedly protecting against the aliens. She runs past the group to get a closer look and sees that the entire group is composed of just civilians in some sort of white coats, but it's what's among them that interests her: the kid, and he's being escorted by a short haired woman in attire like the rest. This only confirms that this is all a memory.

Now with something to follow, she runs towards the group hoping to find out as to where they're going. Suddenly a shadow formed over her which caused her to look up and observe a titanic structure looming over them all which makes her wonder as to how she didn't see this before. But she'll ponder that later as she needs to keep track of the group in her search for answers.

After tailing them for a few more seconds she feels herself jolt up causing her to stumble and look down to a rising ramp under her. She runs across and makes it to the interior of the ship, but not before something large made itself known through a loud thud. Her eyes catch the source of the noise which is a large blue monster making its way up the hanger, this caused her to start breathing heavily as fear starts taking root inside her.

"Calm down Isabel, it's just a memory, it's just a memory." She told herself as the monstrous apparition passes through and made its way deeper into the ship.

After slowing her breathing down she jolts back up to see that another creature, one that looks only vaguely like the aliens below, fighting the rifleman while the other continues on. She looks over to and spots the group ascending on a lift with the monster heading right towards them. It quickly scales the wall and reaches the lift where she can sense the fear from all of its passengers. The thing swiped the woman out of the way and took the kid before leaping back down and making its way out of the ship.

Her gaze was guided back to the other creature which is seemingly pushed back by the soldiers and quickly floating towards what looks like a dropship, and withing seconds the creature looked like it took control of the pilot inside as the ramp for it went down and the two creatures entered the ship. It was at this point where everything went black and silent for her again.

She looked around franticly in search for anything, but the void dominates the space again, then suddenly she started to hear something again.

"No need to be afraid anymore Ares. It is all over now, we're finally free from those wretched tarrens, we can do whatever we want now." A raspy voice echoes around her, but she doesn't know as to who or what it's coming from. At least she knows the boy's name now.

Speaking of him she catches a figure just sitting in the distance with their head tucked up against them and after moving a little closer she figures out that it is Ares, but there's something different about this, the aura she can see gives off a shared presence this time as if it's part of the mind. She starts to run towards him with the hope and excitement of making contact with him. She made it meters away from him when she rams into some invisible barrier sending her to the ground and sending a concussive pain through her head.

After recovering from the impact her eyes are suddenly met with his and they locked their gazes as she tries to think of something to do to greet herself to him. Eventually after a few seconds of awkward staring from her end, she waves her hand and gives the best impression of a smile that she can make.

"U-uh, hello there. My name's Isabel, I'm just here to say hello aaaand... have a chat." She stumbles in her introduction as she stands up. However, the boy doesn't respond and continues to stare at her with curious eyes. "Hey, can you hear me?" She knocks on the glass barrier hoping to get anything out of him. But the kid just retreats back into his coil with a now nervous expression. "I'm not here to hurt you, I would actually like to talk to you. Your name is Ares, right?" This got his attention as his head jolts back up to her with a now inquisitive face.

He soon got up and slowly walks towards her as if he still apprehensive about interacting with her, but she continues to give off the warmest smile that she can muster. When the boy eventually got in front of her, she can see that he's a few inches shorter than her and his sky blue eyes gave off a surprisingly pleasant glow as they inspect her. She did the same with him as they both stare at each other as if both of them were unsure as to what to say now, and this was true for Isabel as she never actually planed as to what to say to him after the greeting.

"Are you, real?" Ares asked, his voice muffled by the barrier but still audible to the blonde.

"Yes, I am. I'm Isabel and my father saved you from a storm and brought you to our house." She sees that his body is becoming less tense, so she continues. "You're currently in our care right now, you were pretty beat up when we found you but you're fine now. I'm just here to be the early greeter." She hopes the he would buy it since this is a half-truth on her part and she isn't sure that he'll be happy about someone just rummaging through his head like she's doing.

"So, you're like me?"

"What do you mean?" She wasn't expecting this response.

"You can read minds like me, can't you?" His question was full of innocence as his head tilts up to her.

"Y-yes, I can. You can also?"

"For as long as I can remember, but I never used it much." A ping of excitement forms in her mind as she realized that she's meeting a fellow telepath. She had never met one in person for her entire life but now she isn't alone anymore. For as much as she did appreciate the company of her family they couldn't have the same familiarity with her as she would have with a fellow mind reader.

Just as she was going to continue the conversation Ares suddenly panics as he looks up past her and her own nerves suddenly send a chill up her spine. She spins her head around to be met with shear dread as the familiar form of the monster from the memory looms over her, but this time she can feel its presence just as much as she could feel Ares. Her body refuse to move as fear overtakes her entire being while she watches the monster raised up one of its claws.

"Cronos no!" She heard the boy plea to the creature, but it was no use as within one swift motion its claw came down then everything went black for her.

* * *

" **You seem rather mellow after everything that happened."**

 **This is actually a normal state of mind for me as I lack the energy to be happy or angry, think of it as the middle ground of the two.**

 **First off let's bring out the daily trivia:**

 _ **While it may seem like studying and rehearsing information is the best way to ensure that you will remember it, researchers have found that being tested on information is actually one of the best ways to improve recall.**_

 _ **One experiment found that students who studied and were then tested had better long-term recall of the materials, even on information that was not covered by the tests.**_

 _ **Students who had extra time to study but were not tested had significantly lower recall of the materials. (Cherry, Kendra) (Very Well Mind . com)**_

 **I knew school wasn't doing something right in that department, it has so many kinks that it needs to iron out.**

 **But now with something that I hadn't done in a while which are reader responses:**

 _ **Hwang Manuel:**_ **I'm glad you took interest in this story my man. This little idea had been a thing since my early days of senior high school, though the premise of the story has certainly changed a lot before I started writing the definitive draft of the first chapter. To give you a taste Ares would've had a much more easygoing attitude at the beginning and Janusar and Cronos weren't going to be a thing. (Also sorry for not responding to you on the last chapter, I forgot to check the reviews for any new ones.)**

 ** _Mr. treestar_** ** _:_** **I appreciate you enjoying this story fellow fanfict explorer. Also, thanks for the input regarding the whole name confusion. I've looked back to the earlier chapters and I realized that I may have introduced a lot of characters in such a relatively short time to the point where even I got turned around a bit. But if it's anything else specific then don't be afraid to point it out. I'll try my best to remedy this flaw in later chapters I can assure you that.**

 **Now with all of that done and gone, I hope that you all have a great day or night.**

" **Wherever you guys may be."**

 **See ya.**


	23. Chapter 22: Doubts and Promises

**Alright, so this took a bit on my end, sorry peeps. Too busy working on that webcomic I told you guys about a while back.**

 **"Yep, and I just found out that the setting is similar to my home planet."**

 **That remindes me, why did you leave your world?**

 **"Too much politics and not enough excitement, that's why."**

 **And how did you get these abilities to travle through dimensions?**

 **"It just happened out of nowhere, still trying to figure that tidbit out."**

 **Alright then, I'll just get going with the chapter then, it's been long enough.**

* * *

Chapter 22: Doubts and Promises

Ares watched helplessly as his brother looms over the newcomer with an arm raised and ready to strike.

"Cronos no!" Ares pleas, but he shows no sign of faltering.

He needs to do something about, he doesn't want someone he just met to get hurt, not like last time. His fists slam on the invisible barrier but it doesn't budge causing the boy to become irritated.

' _If only this barrier isn't here!'_ He thought before he heard a crack. He looks up to it and sees a small crack had formed under one of his fists. Quickly getting the idea he focuses his mind and the barrier immediately starts to break and within seconds it shatters like glass. He pushes himself on top of Isabel right as Cronos strikes which causes his entire world to turn white.

It was all silent for a moment, but soon all of his senses begin to rapidly flood in as his mind returns to the waking world, almost overwhelming the young boy. Finally, his eyes open wide and he sits up in a cold sweat and with rapid breath. As he recovers, he looks around to see that he's in some sort of house as the girl said, but then hears the frantic voices of people behind him causing him to turn around. He sees the same girl but now on the floor and clutching her head while two other people rushed to her care. His heart is gripped in fear as he just stares in disbelieve before the man of the group turns to him with eyes full of anger.

"What did you do to her?" He demanded, struggling to hold his anger in.

"I-I didn't mean to hurt her."

"Bullshit!" The sudden outburst causing Ares to scamper towards the other end of the cushion in fear.

"Dad, he's telling the truth." Isabel intervenes as she holds his arm, already seeming to recover from the ordeal. "Something else expelled me out of his mind, something he had no control over." This explanation seemed to have tamed the man's anger for the time being, but the atmosphere is still tense for the boy as the man now looks at him with the face of suspicion.

"Then come with me, you'll explain everything that you saw." He takes the blonde's arm and turns to the red-haired woman. "May, take care of the kid, but be careful." The woman nods before the two groups make their separate ways with the two going to the far side of the room while the woman goes into another one next door over leaving him alone.

 _'Brother, are you alright?'_ The voice of Cronos runs through his mind.

 _'Yes, but Isabel, what did you do to her?'_

 _'Only what was necessary, I forced her out of her mind, but since you took the brunt of my actions the psychic backlash wasn't much for her.'_

 _'Thank goodness. So, where are you?'_

 _'Currently on my way to you, I wasn't sure if you were alright, but at least now you're out of the way of the storm's wrath.'_

 _'Please don't, not right now. I don't think they'll respond well to you.'_

 _'But we need to-'_

 _'Just get Janusar, he needs the help more than I do. And from the look of things these people aren't going to hurt me, they don't even know what I am right now. Shouldn't we give them a chance? A chance you denied Sira?'_ A hint of frustration was heard within the last question. Silence filled the mind before his brother came with the answer.

 _'Alright then, I'll leave you in the care of these terrans, but we'll be watching closely. The moment they present themselves as a threat to you, we're immediately retrieving you.'_

 _'You promise?'_

 _'I promise.'_

 _'Thank you.'_ Soon after the presence of his brother dimmed out.

Ares looks up towards the pair to see them talking with each other with the father's arm over the girl's shoulder and facing away from him. He can't hear what they're saying but he notes the adult's protectiveness with it being shown from him looking to him then back to his child.

Suddenly he smells something rather appealing to him, something that he never smelled before, which caused him to look over and see May walking towards her with something in one hand and glass of water in another.

"Here you go, it isn't the biggest meal, but I'm sure you'll like it." May told him while she puts them down on the table in front of him. He investigates the new meal in front of him, wonder as to what it is, he had never seen anything like this before. "What is it? You're acting like you've never seen a sandwich before." He looks back up to her then back to the sandwich.

Supposing from the smell that it tastes better than what he's eaten before, he picks it up and takes the first bite. The resulting sensation overwhelmed his taste buds with immense euphoria causing the young hybrid to savagely eat at the morsel, not taking a moment to breath in the process causing the woman to worry.

"Wait, you're going to cho-" Before she could finish, Ares has consumed the entire sandwich and already licking off the crumbs off his lips, stunning the woman. "Wow, you must've been really hungry, I guess I can make you another one if you like." He nods his head furiously. "Alright then, I'll go make another one then." She walks off into the other room again to prepare another meal.

At the same time both the father and daughter start to walk back, he sees that the girl is a little nervous as she fiddles with her fingers, and he finds out why when he looks at the man who holds a piercing glare on him causing Ares to become nervous. He can still feel the anger from him by this gaze alone, so he sits up and doesn't make a move in hopes of not provoking him.

"Alright now Ares, Isabel explained everything she saw. But now I have to ask you something: who else is here? You obviously hadn't escaped on your own and based on your memories some sort of creature aided in your efforts." The man asked. Not being in a position to deny him the boy complies.

"T-there is, I have two brothers: Cronos and Janusar. Cronos is currently looking for Janusar since we've all gotten separated by the storm."

"What will happen when they find each other?"

"They'll come for me next."

"Then call them off."

"I can't, they're very protective of me so they won't listen to that demand. But they won't hurt you, I talked to Cronos after you all separated, and he promised me that they won't harm you unless you become a threat to me."

"What about Janusar?"

"He's still trying to find him, but I'm sure that he'll convince him when he does."

"We'll see about that." He looks over the window. "It's getting dark outside. We should all get some shut eye." He suddenly stumbles while holding his head, but Isabel catches him.

"Especially you dad, you've been through some crap."

"But what about Ares?" They all turn to see May with another sandwich in her hands. "We don't have an extra room for guests." The three thought about a solution to the problem for a few seconds until the man broke the silence. "How about that blow-up mattress? The one we used while Mac used to visit."

"Alright, I'll go get everything." After setting the food down May immediately heads towards the hallway to get what is needed.

"Thanks, now for you dad." The blonde tries to take her father away, but he resists.

"Wait, what about the kid? How do we know that he won't don't anything?"

"I'm sure that he won't, he doesn't seem like that kind of person."

"Never let your guard down for anything Isabel."

"I know, I know. But I'm sure about him. Now let's get you cleaned up, you're soaking and tracking mud." Ares watches the two exit out the room, but not before the man looks over and gives him a quick glare.

He's left alone once again with a slight unsettling feeling in his stomach now which makes him unwilling to eat the sandwich in front of him. This was not how he imagined meeting new people.

* * *

The sound of hundreds of raindrops hitting the forest fills the dark air, drowning out all other sounds in a tide of pelting water. Thunder suddenly booms above it all briefly coating the entire area with light and revealing that large and monstrous frame of Cronos trampling through the soaking foliage, unhindered by the dampness of the mud. As the light ceases his eyes present the only glow for him as they show his face in a dim blue light.

Within his mind two emotions runs through it: a sense of relief and a sense of worry. He is relieved with the fact that Ares is safe from the storm, but he still worries about Janusar since he still hasn't responded back to his numerous calls. Unlike Ares he and Janusar can take a good amount of damage as they are, which is why he's worried that he has taken considerable damage to the point of crippling him.

After traversing through the storm ridden forest, he starts feeling the connection to his sibling strengthening which rouses his anxiousness as he's getting close and makes him suddenly change direction like a magnet being attracted to another. This is when he comes upon a raging river flowing down stream, this does not disrupt his path as this is not the direction he needs to go. He looks to his left and sees a large pile of rocks and mud and within it originates a faint blue glow emanating from the cracks of the humongous pile and he immediately runs towards it, anxious to free his brother.

After reaching the pile he immediately starts digging into it with his four arms, his claws making easy work at digging through the earth and throwing large chunks of it away. It took him a few seconds to reach the bottom of the mound and laying there is the unconscious but still intact body of Janusar.

"Brother…" Cronos speaks out to him hoping that this time he'll respond. After a few seconds without one his fingers begins to twitch as life slowly starts coming back to his form.

"Uuugh…Cronos." Janusar forces out his response as the larger of the two lifts him up. "Ares…where is he?" He springs back to full strength as he asks the question.

"You were separated from him in the storm, but he's okay, he's with some local terrans."

"What? We must retrieve him now!" He demands.

"No, I have spoken to him and promised that we would not harm nor interfere with the family."

"But what if they-"

"Hurt him? He assured me that they won't, and if they did, we would come in."

"But still, they're terrans."

"And what? As far as I've seen these one still know little about what we are. In fact, I think they're just concerned, and Ares knows this. I think that it's best to listen to him, we both know of his current mental state, he may need this. I'm starting to think that separating him from Sira was a mistake."

"Don't be ridiculous, she would turn him against us."

"And what proof do you have?"

"They all wanted to make us into weapons from the beginning. What other purpose did her behavior have?"

"Perhaps more than we could see, something that only Ares could see. Even then that doesn't mean that we should distrust these terrans. What reason would they have to deceive us in such a matter if they know basically know nothing about us?" Janusar stood still at his brother's statement, unable to find a counter argument.

"Fine, we'll keep out of their affairs until otherwise, but we'll watch closely."

"Thank you." The two then set off into the night to reunite with their sibling.

* * *

 **So, I've basically got nothing to say but that I'll be working on the first page of my webcomic for the bulk of the first week so expect some delays.**

 **Now for the trivia of the day:**

 _ **Trust can be measured across four key factors, including credibility, reliability, intimacy and self-orientation. Credibility is all about what we say, our skills and credentials. Reliability is all about the actions we take and our predictability. Intimacy is tied to how comfortable people are confiding in us, and our empathy. And self-orientation is about ego. (trust advisor . com )**_

 **With all that out of the way I hope that you all have a great day or night wherever you may be.**

 **"See ya peeps! ^^"**


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